EXPERIMENTS IN 
PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Levitation, Contact 
and the Direct Voice 



W.J.CRAWFORD, D.Sc. 




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EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL 
SCIENCE 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



THE REALITY OF PSYCHIC PHE- 
NOMENA 

A record of the series of scientific tests 
carried out by the author in 1915 and 1916 
to determine the amount, direction and 
nature of the force used in levitation and 
other Psychic Phenomena. 

Liberally illustrated with diagrams 
$2.00 net. 

HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS FOR 
THOSE INVESTIGATING THE 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 

Formulating for enquirers the conditions 
and surroundings which the author has 
discovered to afford the best opportunities 
for communication between our world 
and the Unseen. 

Illustrated 

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E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



EXPERIMENTS IN 
PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Levitation, Contact, and 
the Direct Voice 

BY 

W. J. CRAWFORD, D. Sc. 

LECTtTRER IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, THE MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL 
INSTITUTE, BELFAST; EXTRA-MURAL LECTURER IN MECHAN- 
ICAL ENGINEERINQ, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BEL- 
FAST. AUTHOR OF "THE REALITY OF 
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA," ETC. 




NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

681 FIFTH AVENUE 



Copyright, 1919, 
By E. P. Dutton & Company 



All Rights Reserved 



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Printed in the United States of America 



©CI.A529227 

JUL 14 1319 



PREFACE 

In this work I deal with problems connected 
with the physical phenomena of spiritualism. I 
have already examined some of these in The 
Reality of Psychio Phenomena published two 
years ago, but in the present yolume I go further 
into details, I described experiments for the 
most part of a more difficult and far-reaching 
nature than those set forth in my former book. 
In addition, I give the results of tests carried 
out on "contact" phenomena and on the "direct 
voice," : 

I purpose in the near future to write a volume 
dealing with the more intimate details of the 
psychic structures at the Goligher circle. 

I think that a series of small works dealing 
with the results of psychic investigation is pref- 
erable to one unwieldy volume containing 
masses of detail. One needs to take these psy- 
chic matters in small doses if they are to have 
any chance of assimilation. 

My purpose in writing these books, is to ad- 
vance our knowledge of psychic phenomena and 
the laws underlying them. The actual experi- 
menting has given me great pleasure, though it 



vi PREFAGE 

has involved the outlay of much time and labour. 
No one unacquainted with the subject and its 
peculiar difficulties can adequately appreciate 
the time and toil required in the preparation of 
even a small work such as this. The only re- 
ward is a mental one and the stimulation comes 
from one's innate interest in the subject. 

I have to thank Mr. S. Stoupe, of the Art 
Department of the Technical Institute, Belfast, 
for the valuable help he has given me, especially 
with regard to photography, and Mr. C. C. 
Pounder, A.M.I.Mech.E., for his assistance in 
reading over the manuscript and suggesting al- 
terations and improvements. 

I also desire to thank other friends who have 
helped me in various ways. 

In the text of the present work I use the let- 
ters R.P.P. when I refer to my former book The 
Reality of Psychic Phenomena. 

W. J. Crawford. 
Belfast, February, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

CHAFTEB PAG3 

I. Introductory • 1 

II. New Problems and Experiments on Re- 
action 19 

III. Miscellaneous /~ : . 86 

IV. Analysis of Results \ 106 

V. Questions and Answers 136 

VI. Contact Phenomena 160 

VII. Direct Voice Phenomena 178 



vu 



FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

Fig. 7. Style of Table used in the Experiments 
showing also the Position of the Me- 
dium 29 

Fig. 27. The Table in Position supported clear of 

the Floor by Cords from Balance . . 162 

Fig. 28. Showing Balance with Table attached 

ready for Experiments 163 

Fig. 29. The two Trumpets and other Parapher- 
nalia ready for the Direct Voice Ex- 
periments 180 



IX 



EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL 
SCIENCE 



EXPERIMENTS IN 
PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Problems which await solution — The Goligher phe- 
nomena — What the operators themselves say 
about the psychic structures. 

AiiTHOUGH complete in itself, the present vol- 
ume is partly a continuation of my previous 
book, "The Reality of Psychic Phenomena," 
which I assume the reader has perused. In that 
book I described a series of experiments carried 
out with a view of ascertaining the laws govern- 
ing the lifting of tables at seances. Those ex- 
periments dealt, in the main, with phenomena 
produced at a home-circle in Belfast at which 
tables and stools and other articles were lifted 
into the air untouched by any person. I put for- 
ward the theory that rod-like structures issued 
from the body of the medium and effected the 
levitations. The table movements were execu- 

l 



2 EXPERIMENTS EST PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

ted under the guidance of invisible "operators" 
who, under the seance conditions, were able to 
work in conjunction with the medium. 

In this volume the matter is taken further. li 
deals with experiments carried out by me at Bel- 
fast in 1916-1917. The circle referred to as the 
Goligher circle consists of Miss Kathleen Goli- 
gher (the medium), her three sisters, brother, 
father, and brother-in-law. The terminology em- 
ployed is the same as that previously used. 

Although certain general conclusions were put 
forward in my previous book, many problems 
were necessarily left unsolved or were only 
partly solved. A few such are as follows: 

(1) While the table is levitated, what is the ef- 

fect of adding weights to it, i.e., of grad- 
ually increasing the weight of the levita- 
ted body? If the cantilever theory be 
true, would not the applied moment of the 
weight at length reach such a magnitude 
that the medium would topple over in her 
chair? 

(2) When a man presses downwards with great 

force upon the levitated table would not 
the cantilever theory involve the toppling 
over of the medium? 

(3) Is the cantilever theory true for all types of 

levitation phenomena or is it only true 
for a particular case? 

(4) What type of psychic mechanism is em- 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

ployed when the medium's chair (with 
the medium sitting in it) is bodily moved 
about the floor of the seance room? 

(5) How is it that the medium feels no reaction 

effects upon her body? 

(6) What type of psychic mechanism is em- 

ployed when the table rests on the floor 
several feet from the medium and a man 
cannot move it either inwards or out- 
wards, however hard he pushes it to- 
wards, or pulls it from the medium? 

(7) What is the exact shape of the cantilever 

arm which levitates the table? 

These are problems upon which I hope to throw 
some light in this book. The experimental con- 
sideration of the more intimate details of the 
psychic structure is left to another occasion. 

In order that the reader may properly focus 
his attention on the work to follow, let me briefly 
describe, even at the risk of some slight repeti- 
tion, the phenomena that occur at an ordinary 
observational seance with the Goligher circle. 

THE GENERAL PHENOMENA 

The members constituting the circle enter the 
room and each sits down on his customary chair. 
They sit round in the form of a circle about five 
feet diameter and the table is placed in the cen- 
tre. The ordinary illuminant is turned off and a 



4 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

red light turned on. The sitters clasp each oth- 
er's hands in chain order and the seance com- 
mences. One of the members of the circle opens 
the proceedings with prayer and then a hymn is 
snng. In a few minutes, sounds — tap, tap, tap, 
; — are heard on the floor close to the medium. 
These are the first "spirit" raps of the evening. 
They soon become louder and stronger and occur 
right out in the circle space, on the table, and 
on the chairs of the sitters. Their magnitude va- 
ries in intensity from the slightest audible ticks 
to blows which might well be produced by a 
sledge-hammer, the latter really being awe-in- 
spiring and easily heard two stories below and 
even outside the house. The loud blows percep- 
tibly shake the floor and chairs. Sometimes the 
raps keep time to hymns sung by the members of 
the circle ; sometimes they tap out of themselves 
complicated tunes and dances on top of the table 
or on the floor. Besides the ordinary raps the 
operators can produce various modifications and 
peculiar variations. For instance, they can imi- 
tate a bouncing ball so perfectly that one would 
be prepared to affirm a ball was really in the 
room. They can imitate to perfection the sawing 
of the table leg, the striking of a match, the 
walking of a man, and the trotting of a horse. 
They give double and treble knocks, i.e., two or 
three fast ones and one slow one. In fact, al- 
most every variety and combination of rap it is 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

possible to imagine is heard. I have used the 
phonograph in the seance room and possess three 
authentic records of many varieties of the raps. 
These records I have used while lecturing on this 
subject. The recorded sounds can easily be heard 
in a hall holding 500 people. 

After a quarter of an hour or so the rapping 
ceases and another type of phenomenon takes its 
place. The reader should remember that the 
members of the circle are simply sitting on their 
chairs holding each other's hands in chain order 
and are only passive instruments in the hands of 
the invisible operators — whoever the latter may 
be supposed to be. The little table is standing 
on the floor within the circle formed by the sit- 
ters and is not in contact with any of them or 
with any portion of their clothing. Suddenly 
the table gives a lurch or moves slightly along 
the floor. After a while it may give another 
lurch or it may rise into the air on two legs (two 
legs being thus in the air and two on the floor) . 
These movements — which are executed, as I have 
said, without physical contact with the medium 
or the members of the circle — are the prelimi- 
nary motions which usually take place just pre- 
vious to the first levitation, i.e., before the table 
rises completely into the air of itself where it 
remains suspended for several minutes without 
visible support. 

I have seen hundreds of levitations under all 



6 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

conditions; standard levitations such as that 
mentioned above, abnormal levitations (such as 
where a stool rose four feet into the air and 
moved gently up and down for several minutes 
while we all examined it closely and while the 
medium was seated on a weighing machine) and 
freak levitations (such as where the table, being 
levitated, rocked in the air just like a small boat 
tossed about on a choppy sea). I have seen the 
table turn completely round in the air, and I 
have seen it levitated upside down and sideways. 
After the exhibition of levitation ceases, the 
trumpet phenomena commence. At the begin- 
ning of the seance a couple of thin metal cones 
which fit telescopically into each other and 
which we will call "trumpets" are fixed together 
and placed upright on the floor between the me- 
dium and her father. The trumpets now begin 
to straddle over the floor with little leaps and 
jerks, remaining in a vertical position until they 
reach the table (now at rest in the centre of the 
circle) where they fall or are sometimes seem- 
ingly pushed over, and are then drawn under the 
table. A loud shuffling noise is now heard, for 
the operators are trying to detach the trumpets, 
a somewhat difficult process as they fit rather 
tightly together. At length, however, the opera- 
tors succeed in separating the two pieces, which 
are soon seen floating in the air, with their ends 
projecting from under the table. The halves 



INTRODUCTORY R6 

then beat time to a tune, like the batons of a con- 
ductor, after which a visitor is allowed to grasp 
the end of either and thus "shake hands" with 
the invisible entities. Sometimes the operators 
press upwards on the under-surface of the table 
with one or both of the floating trumpets, thus 
levitating it. A little handbell is sometimes 
placed on the floor and this is often lifted and 
rung. The sound may be clear as though the bell 
were held by the handle, or dull as though it 
were held by the metal. Sometimes raps accom- 
pany the ringing of the bell. The sitters are oc- 
casionally psychically "touched" on various 
parts of the body. 

Towards the end of the seance — about an hour 
and a half from the opening — the psychic energy 
available, to use a common term, is at a maxi- 
mum and great forces are exerted. For instance, 
although a heavy man sits upon the table it 
moves about the floor with great ease; or the 
table being levitated, a strong man pushing from 
the top cannot depress it to the floor; or the 
table moves to the side of the circle farthest from 
the medium and an experimenter is asked to lay 
hold of it and try to prevent its return to the 
centre, but he is totally unable to do so; or the 
table's weight can be temporarily so much in- 
creased that it cannot be lifted, or on the other 
hand so much reduced that it can be raised by 
an upward force of an ounce or two ; or the table 



8 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

being turned upside down on the floor cannot be 
raised by a strong upward pull on the legs, be- 
ing apparently fastened to the floor. 

SOME NEW LEVITATIONS 

Besides the ordinary standard type of levita- 
tion in which the table rises vertically into the 




JLevitated 
Tabl* Med,um 




FLoor .LeveL. 

Fig. 1. 

air in a normal manner, various modified and 
peculiar types of the phenomenon have occurred. 
At a recent seance the table turned over on its 
side with edge of surface and two legs on the 
floor, surface remote from medium. Then it levi- 
tated in that position (Hg. 1) remaining in the 
air for about half a minute, with lowest edge 
about a foot above the floor. The surface (S) 
was about 4 feet from the body of the medium. 




INTRODUCTORY 9 

It levitated again in the same way and then 
turned over in the air, very slowly at first and 
then jerkily, until its surface was horizontal and 
it had attained a normal levitated position. 
Fig. 2 gives successive positions. 



© 



Floor Level. 
Fig. 2. 

At subsequent seances the table turned com- 
pletely over, as above, both broadwise and end- 
wise, i.e., where in the one case AB (fig. 1) rep- 
resents the short edge, and, in the other case, the 
long edge of the surface. 

While at position (3), i.e., where the table was 
inclined at about 45° to the floor, the operators 
seemed to experience the greatest difficulty in the 
carrying out of this phenomenon. They seemed to 
have no trouble in levitating the table as at (1), 
and in turning it over in the air to about position 
(3), but a halt always occurred at (3). Some- 
times, even, the table dropped there, the com- 
pleted phenomenon evidently being impossible 
despite the almost frantic efforts of the opera- 



10 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

tors. At other times, after a brief halt and va- 
rious shakings and jerkings in the air, the table 
was turned over into positions (4) and (5). At 
the critical point (3) sounds were often heard 
on the surface and legs of the table, as though 
suckers were slipping over the wood, or were 
being forced off, or were taking new grips. 
There could be no mistaking these sounds, for 
they made quite an audible swish. On one or 
two occasions the table suddenly dropped 6 
inches or so in the air, and simultaneously there 
was heard the swishing noise, the inference be- 
ing that a sucker had been torn from its grip. 
The operators themselves say that during these 
abnormal levitations they have several psychic 
rods projecting from the medium simultaneous- 
ly, and that they grip the surface, the legs, and 
the cross-bars (if the table possesses them) with 
the ends of these rods, which resemble straight 
aims having the power to take a suction grip on 
wooden surfaces with their free extremities. Up 
to position (3) (fig. 2) it is easily understand- 
able that the rods could fairly easily grip the 
legs or under-surface of the table (perhaps three 
rods being in operation at once) and turn the ta- 
ble partly over as shown; but about position (3) 
there would have to be a new disposition of the 
rods; or one or more of them would have to let 
go and take a grip on another part of the table; 



INTRODUCTORY 11 

or owing to the awkward position reached, some 
of the rods would have too much stress upon 
them and would be likely to slip (as seems actu- 
ally to occur, if we may judge by the sounds 
heard) ; and in general, new arrangements would 
have to be made. Imagine a man sitting in the 
medium's chair and, instead of his two arms, to 
possess three or four unjointed rods which he 



* 




Floor L.EVEL. 

Fig. 3. 

can move up and down and to and fro, which 
he can shorten and lengthen but which he can- 
not bend, and with the ends of which he can take 
a suction grip on various parts of the table, and 
we have a fairly good idea of what is taking 
place during the occurrence of the phenomenon. 

The psychic rods are usually quite invisible. 

Abnormal levitations (in each case lasting for 
a minute or longer, not merely transitory) have 
also occurred as in Fig. 3, where the table re- 
mained in the air inclined as shown, with legs 



12 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

towards medium, and as in Fig. 4, where the legs 
were directed away from the medium. 



\ 




Floor Leve:U 

Fig. 4. 

THE SHAPE OF THE LEVITATING CANTILEVER ACv 
CORDING TO THE OPERATORS 

The shape of the cantilever at the end of my 
first series of experiments was comparatively 
doubtful. I took it to be roughly as follows 
(see Figure 5 on the following page) : — Here 
M is the medium, T the levitated table 
and AB the levitating cantilever, the last con- 
sisting of two main portions, A, an arm spring- 
ing from the medium, and B, a vertical column 
continuous with the arm pressing upwards on 
the under-surface of the table. I have since 
taken the opportunity thoroughly to question 
the operators as to its shape. A seance was held 
at my own house and replies to questions were 
given by means of raps, blows, shufflings on the 
floor, etc. The following was the code — 



INTRODUCTORY 



13 



Three raps meant "Yes," 

One rap meant "No," 

Two raps meant "Doubtful." 

A continuous series of raps meant that the 
operators wished to say something on their own 
account, i.e., they wished the alphabet spelt out 




FLoor Level..? 
Fig. 5. 



to them so that they could interpolate a word or 
a short sentence. 

A long scraping sound on the floor meant that 
my supposition (on which I was basing the ques- 
tion) was not quite correct although it contained 
some elements of the truth. 

A great many emotions such as joy, sorrow, 
agreement, disagreement, fun, friendliness, an- 
ger, etc., were often also indicated by the various 
styles of rapping. For instance, loud emphatic 



14 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

blows in answer to a question indicated (accord- 
ing to their number) strong agreement or dis- 
agreement; or if a lot of questions were asked, 
none of which would seem to hit the exact truth, 
and a final question apparently did actually 
strike it, there was a little fusillade of raps indi- 
cating that the correct solution had at last been 
reached. Sometimes the operators seemed so 
pleased at my guessing something correctly that 
they suddenly rapped out a lively little tune on 
the floor. 

The reader should understand that the fol- 
lowing description of the levitating structure is 
given by the operators and that I am not respon- 
sible for it and do not attach undue importance 
to it. Nevertheless it has its points of interest 
and I think should be included. 

With regard to the dimensions of the canti- 
lever structure, I first asked the operators if 
they understood what a "cross-section" was. 
They answered "No." Then I went on as fol- 
lows: 

Q. Do you know the meaning of the words 
"diameter" or "thickness"? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Do you know the magnitude of the dimen- 
sion we call an inch? 

A. Yes. 

When I asked them to rap out the number of 
inches in a certain part of the structure they 



INTRODUCTORY 



15 



usually hesitated for a little as though thinking 
the matter over, and then rapped out the num- 
ber decisively and firmly. 

According to the operators the dimensions and 
shape of a normal levitating cantilever are as 
shown in Fig. 6. 




Fig. 6. 



B. 



The top of the columnar part of the canti- 
lever is spread out into a broad flat sur- 
face of area approximating to the under- 
surface of the table. In other words the 
head of the cantilever is shaped like a 
mushroom and even bears some analogy 
to that boy's plaything known as a sucker. 

A fairly uniform vertical column of diam- 
eter about 4 inches. At K the cantilever 
changes its direction from vertical to 



16 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

more or less horizontal. At K the struc- 
ture is 3 or 4 inches above the floor. 
C. Just before entering the body of the medium 
the rod widens to a diameter of about 7 
inches. The rod does not branch out like 
the roots of a tree where it enters the body 
of the medium, but goes in undivided. 
I had thought it possible that the fixed end of 
the cantilever (i.e., the end fixed to the body of 
the medium) might spread out into a large num- 
ber of little rootlets (see R.P.P. ch. xiii), but 
the operators were most emphatic that it does 
not, but goes in solid, although its diameter 
increases (from 4 inches to 7 inches). The di- 
ameter given for the greater part of the struc- 
ture, viz., 4 inches, agrees approximately with 
the diameter of the vertical and arched columns 
seen in the photograph (see R.P.P. ch. xii). 

It is to be remembered that the whole struc- 
ture is generally quite invisible to any one with 
normal eyesight. The operators always said, 
however, that under certain conditions certain 
people who are not clairvoyants would be able 
to see it, and this statement of theirs has lately 
proved to be true. I will deal with this point in 
a later volume. 

WHAT THE OPERATORS SAY OP THE RAPPING RODS 

The theory for rapping developed in my for- 
mer book is that a psychic "rod" issues from the 



INTRODUCTORY 17 

body of the medium; a semi-flexible rod, which 
is moved up and down and strikes the floor or 
table. The operators say that the rod theory 
considered generally is correct. They say that 
raps are produced in two ways : 

(1) Soft raps, bouncing ball imitation, etc., — 

by beating the side of the rod on the floor, 
as one uses a stick for beating a carpet. 

(2) Hard raps — by beating the rod on the floor 

more or less axially. 

While I was obtaining this explanation from 
them, they illustrated the various styles of raps 
under consideration at the moment by actually 
rapping on the floor. 

I asked them the approximate dimensions of 
a rapping rod used to give a fairly hard blow. 
They gave a blow on the floor as a sample and 
then said that the diameter of rod used in that 
particular case was about 2 inches and of uni- 
form thickness over its length, until just before 
entering the body of the medium where it in- 
creased to a diameter of about 3 inches. 

The operators also said that the same rod 
could be used to make a variety of raps accord- 
ing to the strength with which it was struck on 
the floor. They illustrated this statement by 
producing (they said with the same rod) a quick 
variety of raps, as follows: 
(1) Light taps, as though a lead pencil were 
striking the floor t 



18 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

(2) Light bouncing ball imitation, and 

(3) Hard blows. 

These three different raps were used at this time 
to reply to questions requiring an affirmative 
answer, i.e., if the operators wished to say "Yes" 
they gave the three raps (1), (2), (3) above, all 
different, in succession; a rather interesting de- 
velopment. 



CHAPTER II 

NEW PROBLEMS AND EXPERIMENTS ON REACTION 

Capsizing of medium and her chair during levitation 
— The two kinds of levitating structure — Effect 
on weight of medium when experimenter presses 
downwards on levitated table — Levitation over 
spring balance — Upside down levitation — Effect 
on medium when table's weight is increased — 
Relation between increased weight of table and 
loss of weight of medium — Bicycle tests — Psychic 
structure used when table is pushed inwards 
strongly towards medium — Direct downward push 
on spring balance — Psychic mechanism used when 
medium and her chair are pushed along the floor — 
Matter abstracted from the body of the medium. 

In my former book, as I have already said, 
many problems were left unsolved with regard 
to mechanical reaction during the phenomenon 
of levitation of the table. I am now going to 
describe experiments carried out for the purpose 
of solving some of these and of clearing up 
points which were left in a doubtful state. As 
an introduction to this part of my subject the 
following article, reprinted from "The Interna- 

19 



20 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

tional Psychic Gazette" of September, 1916, will 
be found useful: 

"During a recent series of experiments upon 
table levitations, rapping, and allied phenomena, 
I had occasion to examine pretty carefully the 
reaction upon the medium, for upon the extent 
and character of the reaction depends the abil- 
ity to form a satisfactory theory. 

"In this article I wish to give the results of 
late observations upon the character of the re- 
action, and to state as clearly as I can the points 
with regard to it which are definite and fixed, 
and those which are still more or less indefinite 
and, indeed, mysterious. 

"It is well to examine as minutely as possible 
the case of a table steadily levitated a foot or so 
in the air; that is to say, a table which, so far 
as observation goes, is apparently at rest in the 
air in front of the medium, and is not percepti- 
bly oscillating to and fro, or up and down. 
I had better say here that I have never wit- 
nessed an absolutely immobile levitation, for 
close observation always shows that there are 
minute tremors and movements; but in good 
examples of the phenomenon these are so small 
as to be practically negligible. 

"Of course, the reader is to understand that 
neither the medium nor members of the circle 
are touching, or in contact with the table in any 
way. They have either their hands joined in 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 21 

chain order, and feet firmly on floor, or hands 
on knees for experimental observations. The di- 
ameter of the circle is about 5 feet, with the 
table in the middle. I have seen many hun- 
dreds of levitations under all conditions. 

"Supposing, therefore, that the table is stead- 
ily levitated, what have I found occurs to the 
medium? First of all, and most important, be- 
tween 95 per cent, and 100 per cent, of the 
weight of the table is added to the normal 
weight of the medium ; i.e., for all practical pur- 
poses of calculation the effect is the same as 
though the table were resting upon her head, or 
as though she was holding it up with her hands. 
Experiment, moreover, indicates where the 
slight difference lies. For there is also a slight 
reaction, not more than 5 per cent, of the weight 
of the table, upon the members of the circle (six 
in number) other than the medium; so that it is 
probably correct to say that the effect is exactly 
the same as though the table were lifted and 
held at rest in the air by the medium herself 
aided very slightly by the help that could be sup- 
plied by, say, the use of a finger on the part of 
each member of the circle. 

"The important fact, however, is that during 
all the experiments I carried out, nearly all the 
weight of the levitated table was, during the pe- 
riod of the phenomenon, added to the weight of 
the medium. My heaviest experimental table 



22 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

was a little over 10 lb., and the lightest slightly- 
less than 3 lb., so that great weights were not 
involved. We therefore arrive at the law for 
this circle: — During levitation of light bodies 
the weight of the levitated body is practically 
added to the weight of the medium. This, so 
far as I am concerned, is definite, and admits 
of no doubt whatever. 

"But now we come to more troublesome con- 
siderations. What is the effect of the added 10 
lb. (for the heaviest table) on the organism 
of the medium? Is she conscious of anything 
in the nature of stress on her body? Is the re- 
action local or diffused? 

"In the first place, during levitations at cir- 
cles held up to about nine months ago, the mus- 
cles of her arms from shoulder to wrist were ab- 
solutely rigid and hard — indeed, during high 
levitations they were iron-like in their stiffness. 
She also experienced a stiffness all over her 
body, but not to the same extent as in her arms. 
The bend of the arm was chiefly affected, as well 
as the muscles at the ankles. Gradually, how- 
ever, during late months this muscular rigidity 
during levitation, has been dying away, as I 
have myself observed ; until, during the last few 
seances, as I am informed by the director of the 
circle, it is no longer perceptible. 

"Miss G oligher (the medium), who is a highly 
intelligent young lady, tells me that she experi- 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 23 

ences(£ow)no sensation whatever during the oc - 
currenc e of phenomena. What has happened in 
the interval of nine months to cause this change? 
Mas there been a corresponding fundamental 
change in the character of the phenomena? Not 
so. The phenomena are of the same type and as 
powerful as ever. 

"At any rate the medium insists that she feels 
nothing whatever during phenomena, yet I know 
there is an added weight upon her of about 10 
lb. when the table is levitated. The question 
to consider is why she does not feel this weight ; 
why she experiences no inconvenience of any 
kind. 

"The change in the character of the muscular 
stress experienced by the medium may perhaps 
be assumed to be due to the reaction nowadays 
being more evenly spread over her body than 
was formerly the case. From being a localised 
reaction it is now becoming a diffused one. In 
other words, the magnitude of the reaction per 
square inch of her body is relatively small and 
escapes notice. 

"But such an attempt at explanation can only 
contain a small part of the truth. It might suf- 
fice if the total reaction never amounted to more 
than 10 lb. or so, but, as a matter of fact, it is 
often greatly in excess of this, as, for instance, 
when a table being levitated, a man presses down 
on the top of it in an endeavour to depress it to 



24 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

the floor. Allowing 30 lb. for the muscular 
pressure of the man and 10 lb. for the weight of 
the table, we have a reaction on the medium of 
40 lb. ; and there are many other cases which I 
have not space to enumerate, in which the total 
reaction on her body must amount to at least 
half a hundredweight. Even if such a reaction 
were diffused (and this is at any rate not always 
the case) one would think it would be bound to 
cause physical inconvenience to the medium; 
and especially would this be so if the reaction 
were of a variable and impacting nature as is 
often the case. 

"I am now going to offer a hypothesis to ac- 
count for the insensibility that the medium has 
always more or less displayed to these reaction 
forces (though this insensibility is at a maximum 
nowadays, as I have explained) — a theory which 
I feel sure has at any rate something in it. It 
may be stated thus: Durin g__the. ppmrrpTirp. nf 
phenomen a the me dium, a lthoug h her_ brain-is. 
practicallynormal, has a jpeculiar state of insen- 
sibility upon her body, allied to the similar state 
*that janbe produc ed by hypno sis. This peculiar 
condition is induced, I think, of set purpose by 
the operators, in order to render her insensitive 
to the various mechanical actions which have 
their focus on her body. That something like 
this really occurs is rendered likely by an inci- 
dent which took place at the circle. The medium 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 25 

was entranced (not for physical phenomena, 
during which she is always normal) and the con- 
trol said he was going to show the sitters an 
experiment on the insensibility to pain he could 
induce. The medium had a painful and unhealed 
burn on one of her elbows, but notwithstanding 
this she beat both elbows with some force on 
the arms of her chair — and seemed to enjoy it. 
She felt no pain whatever when she awoke from 
trance. 

"A similar case occurs to me concerning an- 
other medium in England. A friend in whom I 
place implicit confidence tells me that he has 
seen several men sitting on top of a heavy din- 
ing table, which rose on two legs. The me- 
dium then placed one of his feet under one of 
the raised legs of the table which proceeded to 
pound his foot with tremendous force — with a 
force which could not have failed to break the 
bones of a normal foot. Yet the medium's foot 
was quite uninjured and he suffered no pain then 
or afterwards. 

"Thus it seems likely that the want of sensibil- 
ity to heavy and varied reactions which undoubt- 
edly occur upon the medium is due to some pe- 
culiar condition of her organism during the pe- 
riod of phenomena. 

"This is also borne out by the reaction effects 
of heavy raps or blows on the floor. The medium 
tells me — and there is no doubt she speaks ab- 



26 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

solute truth — that she is totally unaware of any 
movements of her body while such blows are oc- 
curring. Yet such reactionary motions some- 
times do occur. They don't always occur, and 
the fact that they don't is one of the mysteries 
of this kind of phenomena. But I have watched 
her sitting quietly on a chair in my own house 
with the red light shining directly on her white 
blouse, while great sledge-hammer blows have 
been occurring on the floor several feet in front 
of her at intervals of a few seconds ; and as each 
blow was struck I have watched her whole body 
from the waist upwards sway backwards several 
inches. The blows then became lighter and 
swifter, and with the change the character of the 
reaction shocks also changed, becoming also 
lighter and swifter — and finally when a regular 
fusillade of raps was being produced, she w T as 
under a regular bombardment. I went over be- 
side her and felt the various motions of her body. 
Yet she is unconscious of them, although quite 
mentally alert. These slight motions are all that 
occur while phenomena are in operation. Dur- 
ing levitations lasting up to five minutes she sits 
on her chair as firm as a rock. 

"A matter that I had perhaps better mention, 
is the danger that an unobservant and unscien- 
tific witness of the rapping phenomena might un- 
critically conclude that the various slight mo- 
tions of the medium's body, referred to above, 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 27 

betokened conscious or unconscious fraud on her 
part. I need not labour the point with regard 
to Miss Goligher, but I am afraid other mediums 
may have thereby suffered in the past. Such 
movements and body stresses are what we should 
expect, and I for one, knowing what I do about 
physical phenomena, would be surprised to see 
them entirely absent. For the whole of such 
phenomena — I refer to levitations, rappings, 
movement of furniture, etc., are purely mechan- 
ical operations and must, therefore, obey the 
laws of mechanics." 

A matter that caused much comment and dis- 
cussion was the fact, that during levitation of 
the table, the medium had never manifested any 
tendency to overturn. It is obvious that if the 
cantilever theory be true, there is a fairly large 
turning moment upon the medium even when 
the table itself is the only body levitated, i.e., 
without additional weights; while, if a man 
presses vertically downwards with considerable 
force upon the levitated table, the turning mo- 
ment is greatly increased; yet the medium had 
never shown the slightest tendency to topple 
over. 

The table usually levitates with its centre 
about 2y 2 feet from her trunk; hence, with a 
downward force of, say, 50 lb. the capsizing mo- 
ment is 125 lb.-ft. which, to say the least of it, is 
fairly large and should, one would think, cause 



28 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

physical inconvenience to the medium. But it is 
not so. The medium tells me she feels nothing 
at all. 

During ordinary demonstration seances (in 
contradistinction to experimental ones) she sits 
on a fairly large wooden chair having wooden 
arm rests on either side, i.e., her chair is some- 
what heavier and more massive than the chairs 
of the other sitters. It can be shown that her 
own weight and the weight of her chair, together 
with the pressure of her feet on the floor, were 
sufficient to counterbalance the greatest turn- 
ing moment which had so far been applied dur- 
ing ordinary table levitations. 

Experiment 1 : Capsizing moment on medium. 

I therefore determined to place the medium on 
a weighing machine, and, gradually increasing 
the weight of the levitated body, to take the re- 
action upon her for each weight and observe 
what would happen. Neither the medium nor 
any of the members of the circle suspected my 
real intention, viz., to see if a turning moment 
would be reached sufficiently great to pull the 
medium off the machine. 

Apparatus. — A small platform weighing ma- 
chine reading to 8 cwt., and marked to 2 oz., a 
half imperial size drawing board (covered with 




Fig. 7 




NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 20 

a piece of dark cloth) placed on the platform 
of the machine to increase slightly its area. 

Method. — The medium vacated her usual 
chair, and sat on an ordinary small-sized chair, 
placed on the platform of the weighing machine. 
Her hands were on her knees and she was iso- 
lated from everybody. The height of the plat- 
form above the floor of the room was 7% inches. 
Conditions were exactly similar to those de- 
scribed in Chapter 3, E.P.P. 

I first took the reaction on the medium for 
the weight of levitated table alone, and then I 
placed on the surface of the table a circular 
10 lb. iron weight, obtained the reaction for 
that, added another 10 lb. weight and so on. The 
table rested on the floor between each levitation. 

Note. — Several different tables were used 
during the experiments described in this book. 
Sometimes for purposes of certain tests, altera- 
tions were made to some of these tables which 
affected their weights a little ; but in every case 
I give the weight of the particular table used 
for a given experiment. I finally constructed 
the table shown in Fig. 7. This had no crossbars 
connecting the legs, and nails, screws, etc., were 
eliminated as far as possible. Its dimensions 
were as follows: 

Length, 22 inches. 
Width, 19% inches. 



30 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Height, 28 inches. 
Weight, 12% lb. 



Data: 

Weight of table in this test = 8 lb. 1 oz. 

Weight of medium + her chair 

+ drawing board = 135 lb. 8 oz. 

The following were the results: 



Weight of levitated body 


Reaction on the medium 
due to the levitation 


8 lb. 1 oz. (table only) 

18 lb. 1 oz. (table + 10-lb. wt.) . . 
28 lb. 1 oz. (table + 20-lb. wt.) . . 


8 lb .12 oz. 
19 1b. 
29 1b. 



The weighing machine was not qnite so sensi- 
tive as that used in the first research, but it was 
quite good enough for the work in hand. Ke- 
sults may be considered accurate to % lb. either 
way. Of course any slight movement of the levi- 
tated body in the air affects, to some extent, 
the value of the reaction on the medium, and 
it is quite impossible to obtain absolutely steady 
levitation. 

For the first case given in the above tabula- 
tion, i.e., where the table was levitated without 
additional weights, there were in reality two 
values for the reaction on the medium: (1) 
when the table was levitated only about 4 inches 
in the air the reaction was 10 lb. 14 oz., (2) when 
the table rose to about the level of the medium's 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 31 

knees, the reaction of 8 lb. 12 oz. was obtained 
and this was the minimum and steady value. 

Up to a total levitated weight of 28 lb. the 
medium felt nothing, and she had no tendency 
to overturn; but when I placed the third 10 lb. 
weight on the table, making altogether a total 
load of 38 lb., and the table levitated for an in- 
stant, the medium's feet, w T hich were firmly 
planted on the weighing machine, slipped away 
from under her. She said she was moving for- 
ward and could not help herself. The table re- 
mained up only for an instant. I made the 
medium place her feet as far back as possible 
on the machine, but during the next attempt by 
the operators at levitation, her whole trunk 
swung forward and the table dropped. It was 
obvious that during the phenomenon her body 
was being pulled forward. I told her to grip 
the back rail of the weighing machine with both 
hands to see if this would prevent her being car- 
ried away; but during the next attempt at levi- 
tation under these conditions the whole platform 
of the machine with medium on it tilted over, as 
far as it could go, in a forward direction. 

Finally, seeing that there was no doubt what- 
ever that the machine was tending to overturn, 
I got the medium's father (who sits on her left) 
and her brother-in-law (who sits on her right) 
each to press back on one of her shoulders, while 



82 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

she herself gripped tightly the back-rail of the 
machine, and placed her feet as far back on the 
platform as she could. We then obtained a levi- 
tation lasting for about 10 seconds. 



Weight of levitated body 


Reaction on the medium 
due to the levitation 


38 lb. 1 oz. (table + 30-lb. wt.) . . 


44 lb. 8 oz. 



It is to be remembered that in this case the 
medium was not isolated, but had her shoulders 
held back by two of the sitters as explained 
above, so that the 44 lb. 8 oz. is not due to the 
weight of the levitated body alone, but is ac- 
counted for in part by muscular pressure. 

The main and important result of this experi- 
ment is that for the first time a capsizing mo- 
ment was observed on the medium, due to the 
levitated body. 

During the actions which were occurring upon 
her, the medium felt no kind of pressure upon 
any part of her body. It is correct to say, that 
she felt nothing at all, except an irresistible im- 
pulse to move off the weighing machine. She de- 
scribed the feeling as similar to that felt if she 
were sitting on a see-saw, the end of which rose 
and impelled her forward. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 33 

Experiment 2: Observations on the capsizing 
effect on the medium during levitation when 
she sits on her ordinary chair placed on the 
floor. 

The medium sat on her usual chair, which was 
standing on the floor, i.e., the chair was not 
placed on the platform of the weighing machine. 
She sat perfectly still with her hands on her 
knees, and was thus isolated from all the mem- 
bers of the circle. I asked her to remain quite 
passive and to report her sensations to me. 

The weight of the table was 7 lb. 14 oz. 

While the table was levitated I placed three 
10-lb. weights upon it in succession, making a 
total levitated load of 37 lb. 14 oz. The table 
did not descend to the floor between the loadings 
to allow me to put on the additional weights (as 
in Experiment 1) but remained up the whole 
time. 

Up to a total levitated weight of 37 lb. 14 oz. 
there was no very pronounced effect on the me- 
dium. Her trunk, however, swung gently for- 
ward with the heavier weights and she said she 
felt herself being urged forward, though she felt 
no kind of mechanical pressure on her body. 

I then increased the weights on the levitated 
table two pounds at a time up to 36 lb. (total 
weight including the table 43 lb. 14 oz.). Sev- 



34 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

eral times did the medium's body then swing 
strongly forward, npon which the table dropped. 
I, therefore, told her to hold on with her hands 
to the arms of her chair. I placed an additional 
4-lb. weight on the table (total including the 
table of 47 lb. 14 oz.). When the table levi- 
tated the medium's chair tilted forward on its 
two front legs and the table dropped. 

As this dead weight of about 48 lb. seemed to 
be near the limit for this sort of levitation, I 
removed the weights. The table then levitated 
alone and I pressed downwards with consider- 
able force upon it. 

On some occasions (I made the experiment 
many times) while I was pressing strongly 
downwards, the medium's body tilted forward 
and on other occasions it did not. She told me 
that when she did not move forward, she felt no 
inclination to tilt at all, and when she did move 
forward, she simply could not help herself, al- 
though she felt no mechanical pressure on her 
body. This alternative tilting and non-tilting of 
the medium's body (the two phases occurred in 
alterations with succeeding levitations) took 
place so often that I suspected the operators 
were trying to bring something to my notice, so 
I asked them if the levitating structure was 
sometimes a true cantilever, i.e., no part of it 
touching the floor, and sometimes not a, true 
cantilever, i.e., with the free end resting on the 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 35 

floor under the table. They vigorously assented 
to this and demonstrated for my benefit. I said, 
"I want you to levitate the table with a true can- 
tilever and I will press down hard on the table." 
They immediately produced levitation and I 
found that on all occasions of making the pro- 
viso about the structure being a true cantilever 
the medium felt an inclination to overturn and 
her body swung forward. I then said, "Levitate 
the table not with a true cantilever, but let the 
end of it rest on the floor immediately under the 
table, so that the column forms a kind of prop 
between table and floor" (see figs. 8 and 9) . They 
then produced levitation, and on all such occa- 
sions of the phenomenon under this proviso the 
medium felt no inclination to overturn when I 
pressed down vigorously, and her body was not 
moved. 

The operators say that at demonstration se- 
ances they rest the end of the cantilever upon 
the floor immediately under the table, so that 
when a strong man stands over the levitated 
table, and exerts great pressure upon it, the me- 
dium is protected from the large reaction forces, 
the latter in this case being on the floor instead 
of on her body. 

The operators also say, that they much prefer 
to work with a true cantilever, for, when they 
have to rest the end of it upon the floor* the 



36 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

structure is badly strained and much energy is 
required to maintain its rigidity. 

Therefore, for all moderate weights, say up to 
about 30 lb., a true cantilever is employed, 
and for greater and variable forces, a supported 




Fig. 8. Fig. 9. 

cantilever. Figs. 8 and 9 show the two processes 
diagrammatically. 

Experiment 3 : Effect of base of cantilever col- 
umn resting on pressure recorder. 

Proof of the operators' statement given in 
Experiment 2 that they can rest the bottom end 
of the columnar part of the cantilever upon the 
floor under the table and thus throw most of the 
reaction upon the floor, instead of upon the me- 
dium, when large forces are involved. 

The weight of the table used was 12*4 lb. 

I got a pressure recording apparatus con- 
structed, shown diagrammatically in Fig. 10 
which is an end elevation. 

A and B are two thin pieces of wood each 
about 4 inches square. The top piece A can 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 

n 



37 




Eig. 10. 



move up and down on four vertical pins, two of 
which are shown at E and F, against the pres- 
sure of light springs. Two pieces of brass 
and D, shaped as shown, are fixed to A and B 
respectively and are placed in an electric bell 
circuit. The consequence is, that when a down- 
ward force is exerted on A, the contacts C and D 
come together and the bell rings. 

I said to the operators, "You say that you have 
two methods of using the cantilever, (1) where 
you do not allow it to touch the floor and (2) 
where you let the bottom of the column touch 
the floor in order that the floor may take up some 
of the reaction and thus protect the medium, 
especially when a man stands over the table and 
uses great muscular force. I wish to test this 
statement of yours." 

I placed the pressure tester on the floor under 
the table. The height of the tester was about 2 
inches. The medium was seated on the weighing 
machine. I told the operators to levitate the 
table with a true cantilever. The table levitated, 
during which the bell did not ring. 



38 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

before levitation = 138 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

during steady levitation = 150 lb. 4 oz. 

Increase in weight of medium due to 

levitation of table = 11 lb. 12 oz. 

Weight of table = 121b. 4 oz. 

The two facts that the bell did not ring and 
that the reaction on the medium was approx- 
imately equal to the weight of the table, show 
that the levitating structure must have been an 
unsupported cantilever. 

I then said to the operators, "I wish you to 
show me the second method of levitation. Please 
levitate the table so that the bottom end of the 
column part of the levitating cantilever rests on 
the pressure recorder (it was on the floor under 
the table) all the time the table is in the air." 

Result. — After one or two futile attempts the 
levitation was several times accomplished. The 
bell always rang several seconds before levita- 
tion occurred, as though the preliminary process 
was the firm anchoring of the bottom of the col- 
umn to the pressure recorder on the floor. While 
the bell was continuously ringing and the table 
was steadily levitated, I took the medium's 
weight. 

Weight of medium + chair + board s 

before levitation = 138 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium -f- chair + board 

during levitation = 135 lb. 8 oz. 

Decrease in medium's weight due to 
levitation = 3 lb. 

Weight of table = 12M lb. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 39 

Thus it will be seen that the statement of the 
operators was correct. It is now obvious that 
when a strong man stands over the levitated 
table and presses down on it and pushes it about, 
that the reaction is taken on the floor. As al- 
ready stated, however, the operators for some 
reason or other dislike this method and always 
use an unsupported cantilever where possible. 

Experiment 4: Impression on modeller's clay 
of bottom of cantilever column. 

I brought a little box filled with soft clay to 
the seance room, and said to the operators, "You 
remember some time ago when we were investi- 
gating the methods by which you levitate the 
table, I found that if necessary you could levi- 
tate it by putting the bottom end of the columnar 
part of the cantilever on the floor immediately 
under the table, so that it forms a kind of prop?" 
(See Experiment 2.) Answer — "Yes." "Well, 
I am going to place this box of soft clay under 
the table and I want you to levitate the table 
by this method — only, instead of the bottom end 
of the columnar part of the cantilever pressing 
on the floor, I wish it to press on the clay ; i. e., 
I wish an impression on the clay of the bottom 
end of the column." The operators said they 
would try to do what I desired. I placed the 
box of clay immediately under the table and 



40 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

waited. In a very short time the table levitated 
immediately above the clay, the levitation last- 
ing about a dozen seconds. At its conclusion I 
examined the clay. There was a large irregu- 
larly shaped impression on it, the length one 
way being about 3 inches and the other 2% 
inches. A number of such impressions will be 
examined in detail in a later book dealing with 
the structures. 



Experiment 5 : Effect on medium's weight when 
experimenter presses downwards on levi- 
tated table. 

I had often wished to discover experimentally 
the effect on the medium's weight when an ex- 
perimenter stood over the levitated table and 
pressed downwards on it — not that I had much 
doubt as to the result, for I considered that 
muscular downward pressure was simply equiv- 
alent to increasing the table's weight. 

My wife having entered the circle, I asked the 
operators to levitate the table, which they did. 
I then told my wife to grasp the ends of the table 
and to press downwards uniformly and without 
jerks. 

Data: 

Weight of table = 8 lb. 1 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 
before test = 135 lb. 8 oz. 



HEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 41 

While my wife was pressing downwards as 
uniformly as possible on the levitated table, the 
weight of the medium + chair + board rose to, 
and kept fairly steady at, 155 lb. Increase in 
medium's weight due to muscular downward 
pressure on top of the levitated table and to 
the weight of the table itself = 155 lb. — 135 lb. 
8 oz., = 19 lb. 8 oz. 

Subtracting the weight of the table (8 lb. 1 
oz.) it is seen the muscular pressure exerted was 
probably 11 lb. 7 oz. 

In this case it is obvious that a simple canti- 
lever was used — the method preferred by the 
operators whenever possible. The total levitated 
weight would require to be considerably greater 
than 19 lb. 8 oz. in order to cause the medium 
to topple over (see Experiment 1). 

Experiment 6: Effect on medium's weight 
when the base of the cantilever rests on the 
scalepan of a spring balance under the levi- 
tated table. 

In E.P.P., Experiment 55, I have stated that 
I carried out an incomplete test with the medium 
sitting on a weighing machine and a compres- 
sion balance at the same time below the levi- 
tated table. 

I showed that while the table was levitated 
there was a large downward force (in compari- 



42 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

son with the weight of the table) upon the bal- 
ance. I asked the operators to drop the table 
suddenly, and upon this being done, the down- 
ward force on the balance instantly disappeared. 
Four seconds afterwards (or thereabouts) the 
steelyard of the weighing machine was heard to 
click against the stop and it was assumed that 
during the levitation, in addition to a down- 
ward force on the compression balance, there 
was also increased weight on the medium. The 
experiment was very incomplete and I had not 
an opportunity at the time of carrying it out 
thoroughly. 

Certain data obtained in later experiments 
made me doubt the truth of the assumption that 
during the time there was pressure on the com- 
pression balance below the table, there was also 
increased weight on the medium. On further 
consideration I thought that this increase may 
have been due to a momentary jerk of the steel- 
yard at the instant the table dropped and may 
not have been continuous over the period of the 
phenomenon. I therefore decided to investigate 
the point. 

Fig. 11 gives a diagrammatic view of the ap- 
paratus used. W is the weighing machine, M 
the medium, T the levitated table, B the com- 
pression spring balance, C a metal clip fixed to 
the edge of the dial, P the pointer, and S,S, in- 
sulated wires (one fixed to the clip on the dial 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 



43 




W 




Fig. 11. 

and the other to the centre of the pointer). The 
clip was insulated from the dial by pieces of 
brown paper. The idea was that when the 
pointer moved round sufficiently to touch the 
clip, an electric bell in the circuit would ring. 
Full details of a similar arrangement are given 
in R.P.P., ch. vii. I set the clip so that the 
bell would ring when there was a weight in the 
scalepan of just about 19 lb. 

Weight of table = 7 lb. 14 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

before test = 135 lb. 8 oz. 

During steady levitation above the 

balance, with the bell vigorously 

ringing, the weight of medium + 

chair + board = 122 lb. 12 oz. 

Decrease in medium's weight during 

levitation = 12 lb. 12 oz. 



It is therefore seen that the assumption de- 
rived from the unfinished Experiment 55, R.P.P., 
was wrong and that the increase in weight then 
noted was probably due to a "kick" of the steel- 
yard owing to the sudden drop of the table. On 



44 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

this occasion I took care to have the table de- 
scend gently and almost imperceptibly to the 
floor. 

Note. — The scalepan was pressing vertically 
upwards on the end of the cantilever with a pres- 
sure somewhat greater than 19 lb. (the appara- 
tus was set at 19 lb. ? so that good electric con- 
tact would be made and the bell ring vigorously) 
but judging from the experiments described in 
E.P.P. the magnitude of this upward pressure 
would be in the neighbourhood of 21 or 22 lb. 
The downward weight of the table on the end of 
the cantilever was approximately 8 lb., so that 
there was probably a net upward force on the 
end of the cantilever of between 13 and 14 lb. 
The diminution in weight of the medium of 12% 
lb. seems suspiciously close to this. 

Experiment 7: Effect on medium's weight 
when the base of the cantilever rests on the 
scalepan of a spring balance under the levi- 
tated table. 

The medium was seated on the weighing ma- 
chine and a compression balance was placed un- 
der the table. I wished to take simultaneous 
readings of the medium's decrease of weight and 
the reading on the balance during levitation 
above the balance. 

The weight of the table used was 7 lb. 14 oz. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 45 

In the first place, during levitation of the ta- 
ble I took the reading on the balance. It was 
12% lb. (practically the same for two levita- 
tions). I then went over to the weighing ma- 
chine and said to the operators, "During the 
next levitation, I wish you to put the same 
pressure on the balance as you had on it when 
I was reading it just now." They said they un- 
derstood what I meant, and would do what I 
asked. 

The table then levitated and I took the me- 
dium's weight. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

before levitation = 138 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

during levitation = 137 lb. 14 oz. 

Decrease in weight of medium due to 

levitation = 10 oz. 

It is obvious that there is no certainty that 
the reading on the balance while the table was 
levitated the second time was the same as when 
I read it. There may have been a few pounds 
difference. 



Experiment 8: Effect on medium's weight 
when the base of the cantilever rests on the 
scalepan of a spring balance under the levi- 
tated table. 

Medium on weighing machine and compres- 
sion balance below table. In this experiment 



46 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

my wife took the reading on the balance during 
levitation, while I simultaneously took the 
weight of the medium. 

The weight of the table used was 8 lb. 
(approx.). 

Test A: 

Reading on balance = 23% lb. 

Reading on weighing machine = 124 lb. 

Decrease in medium's weight = 1383^ lb. 

- 124 lb = U% lb. 

Reading on balance — weight of table = 

23% - 8 = 15M lb. 

TestB: 

Reading on balance = 20 lb. 

Reading on weighing machine = 124 lb. 

Decrease in medium's weight = 1383^ lb. 

- 124 lb = 14^ lb. 

Reading on balance — weight of table = 

20-8 = 12 lb. 

TestG: 

Reading on balance = 22 lb. 

Reading on weighing machine = 11934 lb. 

Decrease in medium's weight = 1343^ lb. 

- 11934 lb = 15M lb. 

Reading on balance — weight of table = 

22-8 = 14 lb. 

The results may be considered correct within 
a pound or so either way. I think the three 
tests show pretty conclusively that the pressure 
on balance minus weight of table equals decrease 
of medium's weight. 

It is to be noted that the pressure on the bal- 
ance is not always the same for the same rela- 
tive position of table and medium (see Experi- 
ments 6, 7, and 8). This is probably due to 
the fact that the cantilever may issue from the 
medium's body at various heights. 






NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION] 47 

The results of these experiments are very sat- 
isfactory as they solve several troublesome 
points. They indicate — 

(1) That the cantilever theory is correct so far 

as it goes. 

(2) That the cantilever method of levitation is 

but one method (though the most fre- 
quent one) for levitating bodies. 

(3) That for heavy bodies whose levitation 

would cause the medium to capsize, the 
levitating structure rests on or grips the 
floor underneath the levitated body or be- 
tween it and the medium. 

In my first series of experiments I have al- 
ready said that no reaction was ever discovered 
on the floor, and that the levitated bodies were 
light ones. Accordingly it was assumed that 
a cantilever was always used. It may be just 
possible that the operators experimented in this 
simple way, so that I would not become involved 
with a mass of data which could not be classi- 
fied, i. e., they used their simplest structure so 
that I could advance gradually and regularly. 

I now return to Experiment 2 in which at a 
total levitated weight of about 48 lb. the me- 
dium's chair (on which she was sitting) tilted 
forward on its two front legs (fig. 12). 

The dimensions of the seat of the medium's 
chair were approximately 17 ins. by 17 ins. 

The distance of the centre of levitated table 



48 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

from centre of front legs of medium's chair was 
approximately 21 inches. 

The weight of the medium -f- chair was ap- 
proximately 130 lb. 

The moment of the levitated weight about 
the front legs of chair was 48 X 21 ,= 1008 lb.-in. 




Floors LeveL. 

Pig. 12. 



The breadth of the medium's chair was 17 
inches. It is somewhat difficult to say exactly 
where the centre of gravity of medium and chair 
would be, but it would certainly be a greater dis- 
tance than half way along the seat. Supposing 
that the C.G. was 10 in. from front legs, 
we have the moment of weight of medium + 
chair about the front legs 130X10 = 1300 
lb.-in. 

The values of these two moments are suffi- 
ciently close to support the theory that a can- 
tilever was in this case used to levitate the 
table. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 



49 



THE MECHANICS OF THE PHENOMENA 
CASE I 

A force W acting as shown at the end of a 
cantilever. M, medium; S, weighing maehine. 



W 




Fig. 13. 

The weighing machine will indicate increased 
weight = W 

This is the case which occurs when light arti- 
cles are levitated. 

case n 

Two oppositely directed forces acting as 
shown at the end of the cantilever. 







f 



Fig. 14. 



50 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

•(b) If P is greater than W the weighing ma- 
chine will indicate increased weight = W — P. 

(b) If P is greater than W the weighing ma- 
chine will indicate decreased weight = P — W. 




Fig. 15. 



This (b) is what occnrs when the psychic can- 
tilever rests on top of the spring balance (see 
Experiments 7 and 8). 



case ni 

When the cantilever presses downwards on 
the floor with a vertical force W ? the weighing 
machine will indicate decreased weight = W. 

This is the case that occurs when the table 
rests on the floor either upright or upside down 
and its weight is psychically increased. (See 
Experiments 10 and 11.) 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 51 

Experiment 9: Upside-down levitation of the 
table. 

If the table is placed upside down on the floor, 
the operators are unable to levitate it directly, 
i. e., they cannot raise it straight upwards into 
the air. They have to tilt one end of it at a 
considerable angle, evidently for the purpose of 
getting their levitating structure under the sur- 
face, and such a levitation is extremely difficult 
and rare. 

Seeing that a vertical rise from the floor was 
impossible, we thought of holding the table a 
foot or so in the air in an inverted position, to 
see if the operators could get their structure 
under it, and, providing they could do so, keep 
the table levitated upside down. Accordingly, 
the table was lifted and held by the legs about 
twelve inches above the floor, when the operators 
immediately pressed upwards upon the inverted 
surface and evidently tried to grip it. It was 
obvious they were experiencing trouble in get- 
ting a proper balance. In a short time they 
were successful, for on the legs of the table be- 
ing released, the table remained levitated upside 
down; this occurring on two occasions, the last 
levitation enduring for about a minute. 

The table was not simply supported by an 
upward force on its surface ; it was gripped. This 



52 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

was apparent when the experimenter pushed 
over on the legs during the levitation, for a 
fairly strong resistance was encountered. 

The fact that before a direct upside down levi- 
tation can occur from the floor, the table has to 
be held off the floor is very strong presumptive 
evidence that space is required to get the levitat- 
ing structure under the surface, and hence that 
the structure is a real physical entity. 

The difficulty of obtaining a balance, referred 
to above, was evidently due to the centre of grav- 
ity of the inverted table being above the surface, 
i. e., above the place where the levitating force 
was applied. 

EXPERIMENTS ON INCREASED WEIGHT OF TABLE 
DUE TO PSYCHIC ACTION 

Experiment 10: Effect on weight of medium 
when table's weight is psychically increased. 

I have already mentioned (R.P.P., ch. iv) 
that when the table stands upright within the 
circle space, it can be made so heavy that it can 
only be lifted with difficulty. I wished to see 
the effect on the medium's weight when the table 
was thus affected. 

I asked the operators to make the table very 
heavy. My wife having entered the circle, tried 
to lift the table but found that its weight had 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 53 

been greatly increased. I told the operators to 
keep the new weight as steady as possible while 
I was taking the readings. 



Weight of table » 7 lb. 14 oz. 

Weight of raedium + chair + board 
before^the test = 135 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

during the test «= 115 lb. 8 oz. 

Decrease in weight of medium due to 
the table's weight having been in- 
creased => 20 lb. 



Experiment 11: Effect on weight of medium 
when table's weight is psychically increased. 

In R.P.P., ch. iv, I have told how, if the ta- 
ble is placed upside down on the floor, its weight 
can be so increased that when an experimenter 
grasps it by the legs he finds great difficulty in 
raising it. The table, in fact, appears to be 
"glued" to the floor. I wished to find what hap- 
pened to the medium's weight during the occur- 
rence of the phenomenon. 

The weight of the table was 7 lb. ti oz. It 
was turned upside down within the circle space, 
and I told the operators "to glue it to the floor." 
This they did and my wife grasped it by the legs 
from time to time and tested if it was fixed. I 
asked the operators to fix it as steadily as pos- 
sible and to keep the fixing force constant while 
I was taking my observations. 



54 EXPERIMENTS IK PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Weight of medium] + chair + board 

before the test =* 135 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

f during the test = 100 lb. r oz.] 

'Decrease in medium's weight due to 

the "glueing" of table to floor = 35 lb. 8 oz. 

This was the maximum steady loss of weight. 

I also told the operators to "glue" the table to 
the floor with various degrees of strength and 
on each occasion I found that the medium lost 
steady amounts of weight during the occurrence 
of the phenomenon (less, however, than the 35% 
lb. recorded above). 

Experiment 12: Effect on weight of medium 
when table's weight is psychically increased. 

The medium was sitting on the weighing ma- 
chine. I turned the table (weight 12% lb.) 




Fig. 16. 



upside down and placed it on the platform of a 
smaller weighing machine on the floor within 
the circle. Fig. 16 represents the arrangement 
where A and B are the two weighing machines, 
M the medium and C the table. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 55 

I set the second machine so that it would bal- 
ance at 28 lb. I said to the operators, "I want 
you to 'glue' the table to the platform, i. e., to 
press down on the table so that the lever of the 
machine shall just balance." In a very short 
time they did this. I had to tell them once or 
twice to add a little or subtract a little force, 
but when once obtained it was marvellous how 
steadily they could maintain the correct amount. 
I then went over to the weighing machine on 
which the medium was seated. My wife placed 
her fingers on the lever of the smaller machine 
and told me when the balance was just about 
correct, and simultaneously I took the medium's 
weight. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

during experiment = 121 lb. 

Decrease in medium's weight = 

138^ lb. - 121 lb = 173^ lb. 

Downward force on table = 28 — 
12M - 15M lb. 

The result may be considered correct to a 
pound or so either way. 

These experiments pretty well clear up the 
doubtful points about temporary increased 
weight of the table. It is evident that when the 
table's weight is increased, with the table either 
standing upright or resting on the floor upside 
down, (1) the medium loses weight, (2) her loss 
of weight is practically the same as the increase 
of weight given to the table. This is as it should 



56 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

be if a psychic arm from the medium grips some 
part of the table with its free end and then 
presses or pulls down upon it. 



METHODS BY WHICH THE PSYCHIC CONNECTING 
ROD IS USED FOE VARIOUS PHENOMENA 

Experiment 13: Effect of the phenomena on 
the medium when she is seated on bicycles. 

I was anxious to discover what would happen 
to the medium if she were seated on a freely- 
running truck or something of that sort, while 
levitation was occurring, or while the table was 
being moved about the floor; was being pushed, 
pulled, and so on. As the simplest means of 
obtaining the kind of apparatus I wanted, I fixed 
two bicycles together and tied a piece of flat 
wood boarding across the mudguards of the rear 
wheels. The board was for the medium to sit 
upon. The bicycle combination was placed 
lengthwise along the floor of the seance cham- 
ber. Very little force was required to move it 
to and fro. 

I arranged with the operators that the me- 
dium should sit on her ordinary chair until 
"power" was sufficiently developed, and that 
they should give three raps when they were 
ready for me to proceed with the experiment. In 
about a quarter of an hour, the summoning taps 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION . 57 

being heard, the medium discarded her usual 
chair and sat on the board placed across the 
rear of the bicycles. Her feet could just reach 
the floor, but she could raise them when required 
and thus be completely free of the floor. 

All the tests were carried out under two ex- 
perimental conditions, (a) her feet just touching 
the floor, and (b) her feet off the floor, but so 
high was her seat that all the grip she could 
obtain with her feet on the floor was negligible 
and the results were found to be practically the 
same as those obtained when no part of her body 
was touching the floor. Her hands were lightly 
held by the sitters on either side of her, and, 
acting in accordance with my instructions, she 
sat perfectly still. I sat near her all the time. 

Test A. — The operators were asked to pro- 
duce levitation of the table. 

The table was moved about the floor, an end 
was lifted, and various movements and shufflings 
went on for some considerable time, but com- 
plete levitation did not occur. 

Result. — During the various movements of the 
table the bicycles were strongly pulled forward 
towards the table. I had to exert considerable 
muscular restraining force on them to prevent 
the motion, and give the table a chance to levi- 
tate, for as soon as the bicycles were actually 
allowed to move, the attempted levitations 
ceased. Levitation very nearly occurred, three 



58 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

legs of the table being off the floor. Evidently 
the height of her seat and the generally awkward 
position of the medium prevented final success. 
My wife entered the circle and heljl the table 
a foot or so up in the air, upon which the oper- 
ators took a powerful grip on its under-surface 
(which grip always synchronised with strong 
pull in of bicycles towards table) and levitation 
was almost obtained, for on my wife letting go, 
the table just fluttered to the floor. 

In their endeavours to obtain levitation, the 
operators turned the table in all directions 
about the floor and tried at every angle. 

During the steady til tings (which were many) 
and nearly complete levitations, the bicycles were 
pulled in towards the table fairly strongly, but 
not so strongly as during some other movements, 
such as shufflings, jumpings, dancings, etc., of 
the table on the floor. 

Test B. — The table was placed in an upright 
position on the floor and the operators were told 
to make it heavy, i. e., apparently to increase its 
weight. My wife entered the circle and tested 
the "heaviness." 

Result. — Very strong pull in of bicycles 
towards table during the period of the phenom- 
enon. The bicycles had to be restrained with 
much force. During one of my observations on 
this test (for each test I took from three to six 
observations) I told the operators to remove 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 59 

the force (whatever its nature) suddenly from 
the table. This they evidently did, for no sooner 
had I made the request than the bicycles (which 
an instant before were being pulled in strongly 
towards the table) were released, and jerked 
backwards a foot or so in the opposite direction 
(this, of course, was due to the restraining pull 
I was exerting on them). 

Test C. — The table was turned upside down 
on the floor and the operators were asked to 
"glue" it to the floor. My wife tested it on sev- 
eral occasions and found it was fairly strongly 
fixed. 

Result. — During the phenomenon the bicycles 
were strongly pulled in towards the table. 

Test D. — The table was placed upright on the 
floor near edge of circle and I told my wife to 
hold it by the legs and press it in strongly 
towards the medium. (This is a common test 
with visitors at a demonstration seance, for 
when the medium is seated on her ordinary chair 
resting on the floor, a strong man cannot push 
the table in towards her, and the surprising 
thing is that if a psychic rod connects the me- 
dium with the table, the medium is not pushed 
over). I told the operators to resist her as 
strongly as they were able. 

Result. — On all the occasions of this test the 
bicycles moved backwards towards the far wall 
away from the table, i. e., in the direction my 



60 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

wife was pushing. I made very sure of this re- 
sult, taking observations at least six times. 

While my wife was pushing the table it moved 
forward with her about a foot or eighteen inches, 
i. e., it kept its normal distance from the me- 
dium — about 3 feet — constant. 

Test E. — Same as D with the exception that 
my wife held the table in the air and then pushed 
inwards on it, instead of letting it rest on the 
floor and pushing. 

Result. — Bicycles moved back as in D, the ta- 
ble following the bicycles, the distance between 
them being approximately maintained. 

Test F. — Table on floor as in D, only, instead 
of pushing hard in towards medium, my wife 
pulled as strongly as she could away from me- 
dium, the operators resisting her. 

Result. — Bicycles moved in towards table, but 
not so strongly as they moved out in test D. The 
table also moved forward a foot or so, presum- 
ably to keep its distance from the medium as 
constant as possible. 

Test G. — The table was held up in the air and 
pulled directly away from the medium, the oper- 
ators resisting. 

Result. — Bicycles moved in towards table, but 
not so strongly as they moved back in test E. 
Table also moved forward a foot or so under my 
wife's pull, evidently to maintain constant dis- 
tance. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 61 

During one of the observations in this test, 
my wife gave a sudden wrench to the table, when 
evidently the connecting link gave way, for she 
instantly felt the opposing force vanish and si- 
multaneously the bicycles jerked back a foot or 
so in the opposite direction, i. e., away from the 
table (this was due to the restraining force I 
was exerting). 



Experiment 14: Effect on weight of medium 
when the experimenter presses on the table 
in the direction of the medium, 

I had often noted that if the table stands up- 
right on the floor at the edge of the circle di- 
rectly opposite the medium and on the side re- 
mote from her, and an experimenter gets behind 
the table and presses on it directly towards her, 
he cannot move it if the operators so desire. I 
wished to find the effect on the medium's weight 
due to this phenomenon. 

The weight of the table used was 7 lb. 14 oz. 
It was placed upright on the floor on the edge 
of the circle opposite the medium, and my wife 
grasped its two back legs and pressed inwards* 
in a line with the medium and in a direction ap- 
proximately parallel to the floor. She could not 
shift the table a fraction of an inch. 



62 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Weight of medium -f- chair + board 

before test = 135 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

while my wife was pressing on the 

table as steadily as possible = 119 lb. 12 oz. 

Decrease in medium's weight due to 

the push = 15 lb. 12 oz. 



Experiment 15: Effect on weight of medium 
when the experimenter presses on the table 
away from the medium. 

Medium on weighing machine and table up- 
right on floor near edge of circle remote from 
medium. 

My wife pulled steadily on the table away 
from medium, the operators resisting. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 
before pull.. ^ . = 138^ lb. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 
during pull = 143M lb. 

Increase of medium's weight due to 
pull = 51b. 

After the reading was taken my wife suddenly 
pulled with all her strength and consequently 
more or less jerkily. The whole weighing ma- 
chine, with medium, chair, and board, moved 
three or four inches along the floor in the direc- 
tion of pull (the weighing machine was sup- 
ported on four little wheels). 

In order to verify the results of Experiment 
14, my wife then pushed the table towards me- 
dium, the operators resisting. While the push- 
ing force was being exerted there was always a 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 



63 



decrease of a few pounds in the medium's weight. 
Also, on one occasion the whole machine moved 
back several inches in the direction of push. 



Experiment 16 : How the psychic rod acts when 
a man, though exerting all his strength, is 
unable to push the table (standing on the 
"floor, two or three feet in front of the me- 
dium) inwards towards the medium. 

It is obvious that if the psychic rod (or rods) 
issued straight from the medium's body and 
gripped the near legs of the table, the medium 




-<r 



Fig. 17. 

and the chair on which she was sitting would 
be bodily pushed back when a man (or two men) 
stood behind the table and pushed horizontally 
inwards on it with all their strength. 

Fig. 17 will make this clear. M represents the 
medium sitting on her chair, T the table stand- 
ing on the floor some distance from her, and R 
a psychic rod issuing from above the ankles of 
the medium and gripping a near leg of the table 



64 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

and thus forming a strut. The arrow shows the 
direction in which a man pushes. This is un- 
doubtedly the method used when only a com- 
paratively light pressure is exerted on the table, 
for in this case the friction of the bottom of the 
legs of the medium's chair on the floor is suffi- 
cient to prevent it (and her) being pushed back. 
(If the reader will turn to Experiment 13 he 
will find that when the medium wa.s seated on 
the bicycles, instead of her chair, the bicycles 
moved back when force was exerted on the back 
of the table, showing that simple straight rods 
in all probability connected the medium with 
the table in that case.) But when really great 
force is exerted, such as when two or even three 
men push together, it is perfectly apparent the 
medium and her chair would be pushed back 
bodily, but this, as a matter of fact, never hap- 
pens. So it was obvious to me that for large 
forces there must be a modification of the 
psychic rods connecting medium with table; the 
reaction must be taken to a large extent by the 
floor, i. e., the rods must touch the floor some- 
where. 

When questioned, the operators said that for 
comparatively light pressures, the simple 
straight rods are used, and that for great pres- 
sures the rods issuing from the medium proceed 
to the floor, and then go from the floor to the 
near legs of the table. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 



65 



I asked them whereabouts on the floor the 
pressure was exerted and moved my hand about 
in front of the medium until the approximately 
correct position was reached, this being indi- 
cated to me by raps. This position was imme- 




Fig. 18. 



diately in front of the medium's feet. I placed 
the pressure recorder (see Experiment 3, fig. 10) 
on the floor there just in front of one of her feet 
and asked the operators to exert their pressure 
on the recorder instead of on the floor. In a 
short time the bell rang and while it was ring- 
ing I pushed strongly inwards on the back of 
the table and found I could not move it. The 
experiment was carried out three or four times. 
Now, I have proved to my satisfaction by a 
multitude of observations that the psychic rod 
issues usually from the neighbourhood of the 
medium's ankle. Hence it follows that the path 
of the psychic rod is approximately as shown 
on the diagram (fig. 18) , where M is the medium, 
T table, P pressure recorder on the floor, and 
BR the two parts of the psychic rod. In other 



66 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

words, a short strut projects from the medium's 
ankle to the floor, and from the floor rises at a 
small angle and grips a near leg of the table. 

Although I only tested for one rod, without 
doubt a rod issues from each ankle of the me- 



Le<5 of Table 




Rod Grips 

TABLE LEG 
HER.E 



Fig. 19. 



dium and each grips one of the near legs of the 
table. It does not simply press on the legs, but 
grips them, as can easily be discovered by manip- 
ulating the table in various ways. A large 
downward force must be exerted along the limb 
AC (fig. 19), which makes the part C of the rod 
(where the direction changes) grip the floor 
strongly. At C the direction alters, and B is a 
strut connecting C with the leg of table. The 
consequence is that when muscular force is ex- 
erted on the table in direction of medium, B 
strongly resists the table's motion. The part B 
may bend a little but I have never known it to 
give way. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 



67 




THE TABLE RESTS ON THE 
FLOOR SEVERAL FEET 
DISTANT FROM THE ME- 
DIUM. THE EXPERI- 
MENTER ATTEMPTS TO 
PUSH IT IN ALONG THE 
FLOOR TOWARDS THE 
MEDIUM, THE OPERA- 
TORS RESISTING. SOME 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



(a) Exerting a push 

along directions 
about parallel to A 
(fig. 20) I found 
that the table was 
quite easily turned 
about K, the foot of 
the front legs. 

(b) Considerable force 

exerted parallel to 
the floor, such as M, 
could not make the 
table budge an inch. 

(c) When I applied a 

vertical force, such 
as S, I found that the table could be easily 
moved upwards, though it did not feel 
free but seemed to be sliding or slipping 




68 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

through some kind of a surface which was 

gripping the front legs, 
(d) Attempts to push the table horizontally 

sideways were strongly resisted. 
There is little doubt that the front legs of the 
table were gripped a few inches above the floor. 
Probably in this case two straight psychic rods 
joined the legs of the table straight to the ankles 
of the medium. 

An ordinary push in direction M would not be 
sufficient to make the medium and her chair 
move along the floor against friction and the re- 
action would therefore not require to be taken 
on the floor, and I have found by experience that 
the operators always use the simplest mechan- 
ism consistent with the successful production of 
the phenomenon desired. 



AN INCIDENT 

An experimenter was inside the circle space 
and the table was levitated. He was anxious to 
experience the various psychic resistances to ap- 
plied forces. Accordingly, he pushed down on 
the table and felt the elastic resistance to levita- 
tion and he pushed inwards towards the medium 
and felt the rigid resistance (see Experiment 19, 
K.P.P.). 

He then asked the operators to place the table 
on the floor and to prevent him pushing it in-? 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 69 

wards towards the medium. The table descended 
to the floor. As soon as it reached it the experi- 
menter heard a sucking noise on the under-sur- 
face as though a kind of sucker there was relax- 
ing or changing its grip and simultaneously the 
same kind of noise on each front leg as though 
suckers were taking hold there. The light was 
quite good, and there was nothing to be seen. 

We asked the operators whereabouts on the 
table they had their grip and they immediately 
gave audible demonstration by rapping on each 
front leg and on the under-surface. 

They said they had three psychic arms out in 
this particular case. 

They also declared that they can have as 
many as six arms or rods out at one time. 



DIRECT DOWNWARD 3?USH ON SCALEPAN OF 
BALANCE 

Experiment 17: Downward psychic pressure 
on scalepan of balance. 

The compression balance with its electrical at- 
tachments (as described in Experiment 6) was 
placed on the floor within the circle and the ta- 
ble was moved aside. The balance was adjusted 
so that the electric bell would ring when a down- 
ward pressure on the scalepan of just about 19 



70 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

lb. was reached. I asked the operators to press 
on the scalepan and ring the bell, which they did 
with great ease. To find the effect on the me- 
dium's weight: 

Weight of medium + chair + board 
before test = 135 lb. 8 oz. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

during the ringing of the bell ..... = 115 lb. 8 oz. 
Decrease in medium's weight while 

the bell was ringing and while, 

therefore, there was a pressure of 

at least 19 lb. on the scalepan = 20 lb. 

It is unlikely that the operators would press 
on the scalepan with a force much in excess of 
that necessary to ring the bell; hence the cor- 
respondence between the weight lost by the me- 
dium (20 lb.) and the downward force required 
to ring the bell (19 lb.) is suggestive. 



THE PSYCHIC MECHANISM EMPLOYED WHEN THE 
MEDIUM AND THE CHAIR ON WHICH SHE IS 
SITTING ARE BODILY MOVED ABOUT THE FLOOR 

OP THE STANCE ROOM. 

I propounded the problem some time ago in 
Light as to the method employed by the oper- 
ators in sliding the medium and the chair on 
which she is sitting about the floor of the room. 
I asked for an indication likely to lead to a solu- 
tion of the mystery, but none reached me, and I 
was not surprised. I was never able myself to 




NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 71 

form a satisfactory conception as to how the 
thing was done. 

The solution of this problem, in addition to 
the knowledge of psychic things which it gives 
us, throws some light on what the operators are 
able to tell us concerning the modus operandi 
of their phenomena. For this is one of the few 
cases in which they have informed me before- 
hand of certain definite facts. Their statement 
was a little vague, but was correct in its main 
points, as I will show later. 

The following is the explanation of the oper- 
ators, obtained from them after a deal of ques- 
tioning and cross-examination : — The medium is 
sitting on her chair. From each of her ankles 
there issues a psychic rod which inclines down- 
wards gradually to the floor within the circle. 
It grips the floor at the place of contact. Out of 
this inclined rod there issues a branch rod or 
arm which pushes backwards on a front leg of 
the medium's chair. There are two inclined rods 
— one from each ankle of the medium — and 
therefore two projecting arms which together ex- 
ert sufficient force on the front legs of the chair 
to push it bodily along the floor. 

Experiment 18: Movement of medium and 
chair along the floor. 

I obtained four little metal gliders, and ham- 
mered them into the feet of the medium's chair, 



72 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

so that it could slide more easily and uniformly 
along the floor than was the case without them. 
The only other apparatus was a piece of fairly 
stiff pasteboard about twelve inches long by 
eight inches wide. I informed the operators that 
I would first see if there was any downward 
force on the floor in front of the medium while 
the medium and her chair were being moved 
backwards. Accordingly I placed the piece of 
pasteboard flat on the floor beneath the table 
(which was standing within the circle), holding 
the end of it remote from the medium in my fin- 
gers. I could thus easily tell if any downward 
force was being exerted on the pasteboard by the 
difficulty I would experience in endeavouring to 
lift it from the floor. I asked the operators to 
proceed with the test. 

Nothing happened for a considerable time, 
and I was beginning to think that the explana- 
tion of the operators was incorrect when they in- 
formed me, by raps, that an aura from my hand, 
holding the end of the pasteboard, was interfer- 
ing with the phenomenon. On asking if I should 
put on gloves, they answered in the affirmative, 
and I accordingly did so. In a short time the 
chair and medium began to slide slowly back- 
wards along the floor. 

During the whole period of the movement 
there was a great downward force on the paste- 
board — so great, in fact, that I was quite unable 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 73 

to raise it from the floor, although I tried my 
hardest. I carried out the experiment again with 
a like result. The medium's chair slid back alto- 
gether a foot or so, but the location of the down- 
ward force did not seem to change, i. e., to re- 
cede with the chair. It thus appeared that the 
first part of the operators' statement that a rod 
issuing from the medium inclines downwards to 
the floor in front of her, where it presses on and 
grips the floor strongly, has some basis in fact. 

I then went over beside the medium and 
placed the piece of pasteboard vertically against 
one of the front legs of her chair, resting the 
lower edge on the floor. While the medium and 
her chair were being slowly moved backwards 
along the floor, I found that there was a great 
horizontal force exerted on the pasteboard and 
through the pasteboard on to the leg of the chair. 
So great was the force that, while it was being 
exerted, I was quite unable, although I tried sev- 
eral times, to remove the pasteboard from its po- 
sition against the leg of the chair. The force 
appeared to be exerted horizontally on the leg 
quite low down — not more than an inch or two 
above the floor. It thus seemed that the second 
part of the operators' statement, that pressure 
is exerted directly on the front legs of the chair, 
is correct. 

I next placed the medium's chair on the top of 
a drawing-board resting on the platform of a 



74 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

weighing machine. After some futile attempts 
the operators succeeded in sliding machine, 
board, chair and medium quite easily along the 
floor. The motion at my request was made slow 
and prolonged. 

READINGS 

Initial weight of medium -f- chair -f- 

board =» 133 lb. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 
while the machine was being fairly 
steadily moved along the floor = 851b. 

Decrease in weight of medium « 48 lb. 

The pushing force was exerted on the chair 
and not on the front of the weighing machine 




Fig. 21. 



because the chair was several times pushed off 
the platform during the preliminary attempts, 
and on the successful occasions it always moved 
back of itself until it was against the backrail of 
the machine. 

Fig. 21 indicates what I consider a provisional 
deduction from the above facts. 

R is a straight psychic rod which grips firmly 
the floor at K and pushes directly on the chair 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 75 

leg at D. The rod is "fed" at F by a "feeder" 
proceeding from the ankle A of the medium. 

It is pretty obvious that the inclined rod K 
grips the floor at K, and does not merely rest up- 
on it, for in the latter case it would inevitably be 
pushed along the floor while pressure was ex- 
erted on the chair leg. I have stated that the 
downward force was so great on the pasteboard 
when it was on the floor at K that I could not 
raise it the merest fraction of an inch from the 
floor; and further, the force seemed to be ex- 
erted at the far end of the pasteboard (with ref- 
erence to my position) — i. e., the psychic rod 
was evidently not only pressing on the paste- 
board, but was gripping the floor round about 
the edge of it as well. 

The fact that the inclined rod at its floor end 
actually grips and does not merely rest on the 
floor was audibly demonstrated. Several times 
during the preliminary attempts to move the 
weighing machine and medium, the end at K was 
evidently torn from its hold on the floor, for a 
sharp, shuffling noise was heard on two occa- 
sions resembling the noise likely to be made by 
the forcible pulling from its grip of a plastic 
gripping material. And this occurred at mo- 
ments when I was just expecting the machine to 
move. 

Let us consider the results obtained with the 
weighing machine. 



76 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

In Fig. 22 the rod R is shown, fixed to the 
floor at K, and inclining upwards to the leg of 
the chair (resting on the platform of the weigh- 
ing machine) at D. The force P is exerted in 
the direction of the arrow. The height of D 
from the floor is about 9 inches. (The platform 
and board, the latter not shown on the diagram, 




Pig. 22. 



are together 7% in. in height, and V/ 2 in. are 
allowed for the rod to obtain sufficient clear- 
ance. I showed that the pushing force on the 
leg is applied only an inch or two from its foot.) 1 
The distance MK is about 24 in., M being the 
projection of D on the floor. The pushing force 
P at D can be resolved into two components, a 
vertical and a horizontal one. With the dis- 
tances as given the vertical component is 9/24 
times the horizontal, and the horizontal com- 
ponent is the one which overcomes the friction 
and moves machine and load slowly along the 
floor. 

By direct experiment I found that with Mr. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 77 

Morrison sitting on the machine, the horizontal 
force required to move machine, etc., slowly 
along the floor was 28 lb. (of course the force 
varied somewhat, but that was the maximum 
value while the machine was moving slowly 
along ; the starting force was about 32 lb. ) . Now 
the medium weighs about 14 lb. less than Mr. 
Morrison, so that if we say the horizontal force 
required is 28 lb., we are on the safe side. 

The vertical component of the pushing force 
P, being 9/24 of the horizontal component, 
works out at 9/24 X 28 =: 10% lb. 

Now the vertical component of P decreases the 
weight of the medium. While the machine, etc., 
are moving slowly back the medium's weight 
should therefore decrease by about 10% lb. 
Even if MK be supposed equal to MD (fig. 22) 
the very limit conceivable, the medium's weight 
should only decrease by 28 lb. (These values 
are maximum and do not take account of de- 
crease of friction due to the upward component 
of P.) 

But we find that while the machine, medium, 
etc., are being pushed back steadily and slowly, 
the medium really loses 48 lb. in weight. 

It follows, I think, that her loss of weight is 
not wholly accounted for by the vertical com- 
ponent of the force P. How, then, can it be 
accounted for? Most probably by the fact that 
the psychic rod R contains matter removed from 



78 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

the medium's body, i. e., that an integral part of 
the rod is matter from the medium's body. 

I think, also, that this experiment indicates 
that the operating entity in this case works from 
outside the medium's body. 

THE QUESTION OF MATTES ABSTRACTED FROM THE 
BODY OF THE MEDIUM. MATTER USED IN THE 
CONSTRUCTION OF THE PSYCHIC RODS AND CAN- 
TILEVERS. 

Eecent research has given the following re- 
sults: 

A drawing-board was placed on the platform 
of a weighing-machine and a chair was placed 
on the top of the board. The medium (Miss 
Goligher) sat on the chair, with her feet resting 
on the board. 

Experiment 19 : Psychic matter used for canti- 
lever. 

I said to the operators, <<You say the levitat- 
ing cantilever contains matter from the body of 
the medium. I want you to take out from her 
body the matter you use in the construction of 
the cantilever you employ to levitate -this table 
(weight 12% lb.) and to place this matter 
loosely on the floor — not to build up the canti- 
lever, but simply to place the matter required 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 79 

for it on the floor. Give three raps when you 
have done this." 

The medium's weight began to decrease and 
in a few seconds became fairly steady. Then I 
heard the three raps, signifying that the opera- 
tion was complete. 

Res-ctlt: 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

before the experiment =» 138 J^ lb. 

Fairly steady weight of medium + 
chair + board after the raps were 
given = 122)^ lb. 

Decrease in weight in medium =* 16 lb. 

It is noteworthy that when I carried out the 
game test about eighteen months previously, I 
obtained the same result within a pound or two. 
(See Experiment 63, R.P.R) 



Experiment 20: Psychic matter placed on 
drawing-board. 

I asked the operators to put the matter they 
said they abstracted in Experiment 19, not on 
the floor, but on the drawing-board under the 
medium's chair (the drawing-board was resting 
on the platform of the weighing machine). They 
gave three raps when the operation was com- 
plete. 

Result. — The medium's "weight showed no dif- 
ference from her normal of 138% lb- 

This, of course, is as it should be, as any actual 



80 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

matter taken from her body and placed on the 
drawing-board would still be accounted for by 
the weighing-machine, provided that such mat- 
ter was acted on by gravity in the normal way. 

Experiment 21 : Psychic matter used for larg- 
est rapping rod, 

I asked the operator^ to lake from the body 
of the medium the matter they use in the con- 
struction of the rod employed to give their loud- 
est sledge-hammer blow and to place this mat- 
ter loosely on the floor — not to form an actual 
rod, but just to place the matter contained 
within it on the floor. Three raps to be given 
when the operation was complete. 

Result: 

^Weight of medium -f- chair + board 

before the test = 138^ lb. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

when the three raps were given ... = 96 >£ lb. 
Decrease in weight of the medium. . . «= 42 lb. 

The result is correct to 2 lb. or 3 lb. The 
decreased weight could not be kept quite steady, 
there evidently being a strong tendency for the 
abstracted matter to fly back into the body of 
the medium. The operators appeared to expe- 
rience much difficulty in keeping it outside on 
the floor, though they seemingly managed it for 
a period of from eight to ten seconds. More- 
over, the medium became rather restless when 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 81] 

her weight greatly diminished, though tip to a 
decrease of 20 lb. or so she did not move a 
muscle. 



Experiment 22: Psi/chic matter 'built up into 
a rapping rod. 

I asked the operators to make the matter they 
said they abstracted in Experiment 21 into a 
psychic rod, exactly similar to the rod they use 
to cause the sledge-hammer blow. I told them 
to rest the free end of this rod on the floor — not 
to press, but simply to rest it on the floor. The 
operators gave three raps when this was sup- 
posed to be done. 



Result: 

Weight of medium -f- chair + board 
before test = 138^ lb. 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

when the three raps were given .. . = 993^ lb. 

Decrease in weight of medium (cor- 
rect to 2 lb. or 3 lb.) = 39 1b. 



Experiment 23: Maximum weight of matter 
taken from medium's tody, 

I asked the operators to take as much matter 
from the medium's body as they possibly could 
and to rest it on the floor. Three raps were given 
when this was supposed to be done. 



82 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Result: 

Weight of medium + chair + board 

before test = 138H lb. 

Weight of medium + chair + board when 

the three raps were given = 84 lb. 

Decrease in weight of medium (correct to 

L 2 lb. or 3 lb.) = 54^ lb. 

The weight decreased in fluxes, seemingly as 
though the operators were pulling the matter 
out against the action of something resembling 
a spring. After about the 30 lb. mark was 
passed the pulls on the medium's body were evi- 
dently severe, as she became somewhat restless. 
Sometimes, when the maximum diminution of 
weight was being approached, there were quick, 
jerky decreases of weight which could not be 
maintained and the lost weight flew back. But 
the loss of 54% lb. given above (nearly half 
the medium's normal weight) was fairly held 
for eight or nine seconds while I was taking the 
reading. There were fluxes of 6 lb. or 8 lb. 
more than this, but they could not be held long 
enough to enable me to get a satisfactory read- 
ing. As I have said, it would seem that the mat- 
ter was tending to be pulled back into the me- 
dium's body by something resembling a spring, 
for the more matter removed the stronger the 
restraining force became. 

The above are a few of the results which are 
gradually leading me to the conclusion that the 
psychic rods which produce the phenomena are, 
for all their invisibility and impalpability, really 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 83 

packed with matter, but matter which has taken 
on a form unknown to science. 

Experiment 24 : To discover if there was any 
reaction pressure on the medium's chair, 
drawing-board under her chair, standard of 
the weighing machine, the floor round the 
weighing machine, or upon the surface of 
her tody, when the table was levitated. 

The medium was seated on the weighing ma- 
chine. 

In order to test for mechanical pressure I em- 
ployed the apparatus of Experiment 3 (fig. 10). 

During periods when the table was steadily 
levitated, (a) I placed the pressure recorder on 
the drawing-board under the medium's chair, 
and moved it here, there, and all over it, sliding 
it right up to her feet (which were at rest on 
the drawing-board) ; then I raised it from the 
board into the air behind the calves of her legs. 

Result. — No pressure indicated anywhere. 

(b) I slid the pressure recorder all over the 
under-surface of the seat of the medium's chair. 

Result. — No pressure indicated anywhere. 

(c) I placed the pressure recorder on the 
standard of the weighing machine and on vari- 
ous other parts of the machine. 

Result. — ~No pressure recorded anywhere. 

(d) I slid the pressure recorder along the floor 



84 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

right from the front of weighing machine plat- 
form to the region immediately below the levi- 
tated table. 
Result. — No pressure indicated anywhere. 

(e) I slid the pressure recorder here and there 
along the floor at the side of the weighing ma- 
chine. 

Result. — No pressure indicated anywhere. 

(f ) I placed the pressure recorder on the front 
of the medium's body just below her neck and 
slid it all over her arms and chest, covering every 
square inch of her body down to nearly the base 
of the trunk. 

Result — No pressure indicated anywhere. 

? 

The operators did not wish me to proceed with 
the pressure recorder any lower than near the 
base of the trunk, and as I invariably give heed 
to their demands, I desisted. 

From the results of this experiment it seems 
that when the table is levitated by means of a 
true cantilever, all the reaction is upon the body 
of the medium, and there is none upon the weigh- 
ing machine, drawing-board, chair, or floor. That 
is to say, the cantilever issues straight from the 
body of the medium and is not fixed to, or sup- 
ported in any way by the drawing-board, ma- 
chine, chair or floor. 



NEW PROBLEMS ON REACTION 85 

Experiment 25: To see if the operators could 
increase the weight of the medium without 
acting on any material body in the room, 
i. e., if they were able to add to the me- 
dium's weight by action upon her body 
alone. 

I carefully explained the matter to the oper- 
ators and told them they must not levitate the 
table, or act on it in any way, or, in fact, exert 
pressure on anything. Their action was to be 
limited to the body of the medium. 

Result. — Under these conditions the operators 
were unable to increase the medium's weight in 
the slightest degree. 



CHAPTER III 

MISCELLANEOUS 

The question of electric conduction by psychic 
structure — Effect of medium touching the lev- 
itated table with her hands and with various 
articles such as glass and metal — Effect on phe- 
nomena of alteration of position of medium with 
respect to circle — Temperature measurements — 
Effect of screens in front of medium — Psychic 
body of medium. 

Experiment 26 : To see if the end of the canti- 
lever structure which presses on the under- 
surface of table and levitates it, is a con- 
ductor of low-tension electricity. 

About the centre of the under-surface of the 
table I screwed two pieces of brass AA (fig. 23), 
each about 1% in. by 4 in., parallel to each 
other and about % in. apart. 

An insulated wire was bared at the end and 
fixed to each, the wires being in an electric bell 
circuit. I placed the table upright on the floor 
and asked the operators to levitate it, and, while 
they were levitating it, to press upwards on, 

86 



MISCELLANEOUS 



87 
They 



and across the two pieces of brass AA 
said they would try to do this. 

After some manoeuvring the table levitated. 

Result. — The bell did not ring. 

The apparatus was tested prior to the experi- 
ment and found correct. 

I asked the operators if they had placed the 




Fig. 23. 

end of the cantilever across the pieces of brass, 
but they informed me they had not. They said 
they were unable to place it across and had levi- 
tated the table from the region of under-surface 
beyond the metal. 

Experiment 27 : To see if the free end of the 
cantilever structure is a conductor of low- 
tension electricity. 

I turned the table (with apparatus fixed to 
it as in Experiment 26) upside down and asked 
the operators to place a rapping rod across the 
pieces of brass AA (fig. 23). They seemed to 



88 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

accomplish this easily, for the rod could be heard 
scraping over the metal. 

Asked if the end of the rod were properly 
across and touching both pieces of brass simul- 
taneously, they answered in the affirmative. 

Result. — Bell did not ring. 

This result seems to show that the end of the 
rapping rod offers a somewhat high resistance 
to a low-tension electric current. 

Experiment 28 : To see if the free end of the 
cantilever structure is a conductor of low- 
tension electricity. 

The operators having failed to ring the elec- 
tric bell in the manner described in Experiment 
27, I decided to substitute for the bell a galva- 
nometer, an instrument which measures electric 
currents of very small magnitude. Fig. 24 
shows the arrangement, where AA are the two 
pieces of brass described in Experiment 26 
(fixed about % inch apart — somewhat closer 
than in Experiment 26), G, the galvanometer, 
B, a dry cell, and WW insulated wires connect- 
ing the whole in series. 

The operators were told to put the end of one 
of their psychic rods across both pieces of brass, 
or, if they could not do that, to pile some psychic 
matter across. If the end of the rod or the 
psychic matter were even a feeble conductor of 



MISCELLANEOUS 



89 



current electricity, the needle of the galvanome- 
ter would deflect. 




Fig. 24. 



Result. — There was much scraping on the 
wood of the table in the neighbourhood of the 
brasses AA, and it was evident the operators 
were trying to do what was asked of them. They 
seemed, however, to experience much difficulty. 
By means of raps they said they had trouble in 
getting their psychic stuff across the pieces of 
brass AA. I gathered that the metal, whether 
because it was bright and polished, or simply 
because it was metal, or because it was electri- 
fied, repelled in some manner or other the 
psychic stuff. However, the operators said they 



90 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

got across AA simultaneously two or three 
times. 

There was on no occasion any deflection of 
the needle of the galvanometer. 

Experiment 29 : Effect of medium touching the 
levitated table with her hands. 

While the table was levitated in the usual 
way, one of the members of the circle thought 
the medium would like to feel its great resisting 
pressure. So she told the medium to take hold 
of the edge of the levitated table nearest her 
with her hands. The medium leaned over and 
did so. The effect was startling. No sooner did 
she touch it than the table dropped. 

The table being again levitated, I seized it and 
noted its great resistance to my muscular pres- 
sure. Keeping my grip of the table I asked the 
medium to touch its edge. Within a second of 
her doing so the table dropped and every par- 
ticle of resistance disappeared. Several times 
was the experiment tried and the result was al- 
ways the same. Within two seconds at the most 
of the medium touching the edge of the ta- 
ble, all psychic resistance vanished. It did not 
disappear quite instantaneously, but took from 
a fraction of a second up to about two seconds. 

What had happened? It appears that the 
medium by touching the wood of the table estab- 



MISCELLANEOUS 91 

lished some kind of a psychic circuit. Perhaps 
the matter contained within the cantilever struc- 
ture returned to her body via her hands and 
arms. 

Experiment 30 : Effect of medium touching the 
levitated table. 

At a date later than the occasion of Experi- 
ment 29, I carried out further tests on the effect 
of the medium touching the levitated table not 
only with her hands but with articles such as 
wood and glass. 

The operators were told to levitate the table 
in the usual way, but to bring it a little nearer 
the medium than was customary so that she 
could easily touch it. They were asked to keep 
the table levitated if they could, until told to 
drop it. Each test was carried out several times. 

(A) The medium touched the near edge of 
levitated table with her bare hand. 

Result. — Table always dropped — not quite in- 
stantaneously but taking from 2 to 3 seconds. 

This result is in agreement with the result of 
Experiment 29. 

(B) The medium leaned over and placed her 
bare hand on the surface of the levitated table 
near its centre. 

Result.— Table dropped in from 2 to 3 sec- 
onds — exactly as in test A, 



92 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

(C) The medium touched the surface of levi- 
tated table with a glass tube which she held in 
her hand. 

Results — The table dropped in from 5 to 6 sec- 
onds. 

(D) The medium touched the surface of the 
levitated table with a piece of twisted paper 
which she held in her hand. 

Result.- — No effect. The table did not drop. 

(E) The medium touched the surface of the 
levitated table with a piece of wood about a 
foot long which she held in her hand. 

Result. — No effect. The table did not drop. 

(F) The medium lifted one of her feet and 
gently slid it up and down a near leg of the 
levitated table. 

Result. — No effect. The table did not drop. 

Seeing that the table did not drop I got the 
medium to touch its surface with her hand (si- 
multaneously with the contact of her foot on its 
leg), when the table dropped with a crash. 

Experiment 31: Effect of medium and others 
touching levitated table. 

At a date a fortnight later than the occasion 
of Experiment 30, I carried out further tests on 
the effect of the levitated table being touched. 

(G) The medium touched the levitated table 



MISCELLANEOUS 93 

with (!) an iron poker and (2) a piece of cop- 
per wire. 

Result; — The table dropped in both cases in 
from 6 to 7 seconds. 

(H) The medium put on a glove (kid lined 
with silk) and touched the levitated table with 
it. 

Results— The table dropped in about 8 sec- 
onds. 

(I) The medium held her bare hand above the 
table as it rested on the floor and the table levi- 
tated until its surface came in contact with her 
hand. 

Results — The table very quickly dropped. 

(J) I clasped the medium's right hand in my 
left and I touched the levitated table with my 
other hand. 

Result. — The table slowly dropped, the levi- 
tating energy seeming to be gradually sucked 
from it. 

(K) The medium clasped the left hand of 
Mrs. Morrison (who was sitting on the right of 
the medium). Mrs. Morrison touched the levi- 
tated table with her right hand. 

Result. — No effect; the table remained up 
quite steadily. 

(L) Mr. Goligher (who was sitting on the left 
of the medium) grasped her left hand and 
touched the levitated table with his free hand. 



94 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Result. — No effect; the table remained up 
quite steadily. 

(M) A visitor who was in the room watching 
the experiments grasped the left hand of the 
medium and touched the levitated table with his 
free hand. 

Result — No effect; the table remained up 
quite steadily. 

(N) All the sitters (except the medium) 
placed their hands simultaneously on the levi- 
tated table. 

Result. — No effect. 

Then the medium added her hand to the pile 
on the table. 

Result. — The table dropped in a couple of sec- 
onds. 

(O) The medium held her hand in the air near 
edge of the levitated table (but without touch- 
ing it). 

Result. — No effect. 

(P) The medium held her hand in the space 
underneath the levitated table. 

Result. — Table dropped. 

Experiment 32: To discover the effect on the 
phenomena when the medium sits on her 
chair with her back to the circle. 

The medium's chair was turned round through 
180 degrees, so that she sat with her back to the 
circle. 



MISCELLANEOUS 95 

Result. — Eaps were given in front of her, 
i. e., in the direction in which she was facing, 
outside the circle, and under her chair. No phe- 
nomena, however, could be obtained within the 
circle — not even the least movement of the ta- 
ble. 

Experiment 33 : To discover the effect on the 
phenomena when the medium sits on her 
chair at right angles to the circle of sitters. 

The medium's chair was turned through 90 
degrees, so that the side of her body was pre- 
sented to the centre of the circle. 

Result. — The table was quite easily moved 
about the floor but was not levitated. The oper- 
ators said they were able to use only one rod in 
this case, that one issuing from the medium's 
ankle nearer the table. 

Experiment 34 : To see if it was possible to ob- 
tain levitations or movements of the table 
with the medium and all members of the 
circle standing. 

The medium and sitters stood up. I asked 
that the table be levitated or moved about. 

No levitation was obtained, but the table was 
quite easily moved about the floor. Raps were 
also easily given. 



96 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 



Experiment 35 : The effect of lightly grasping 
an ankle of the medium. 

I put my hand lightly round the right ankle 
of the medium, at the same time asking ques- 
tions of the operators. They answered with sub- 
dued, dull raps by means of a rod evidently 
taken — judging by the sound — from her free an- 
kle. While the raps were occurring, the mus- 
cles of the ankle I was holding seemed to be 
squirming; it is not a very graceful word, but 
it is the only one which adequately describes 
the feeling. The foot was quite steady; it was 
only the muscles round ankle and lower part of 
calf which were trembling and vibrating sinu- 
ously. 

Experiment 36 : To find if there is any altera- 
tion in the temperature of the table during 
a long levitation. 

A friend had suggested that the operators may 
possibly abstract heat energy from the table to 
aid them in producing phenomena. This was a 
point of view which had not occurred to me. Ac- 
cordingly, I made a hole in the centre of the top 
of the table and fixed the bulb of a thermometer 
tightly in it. The stem was held in an upright 
position by an arrangement of cardboard. I told 



MISCELLANEOUS 97 

the operators to levitate the table for as long as 
they conveniently conld. The table immediately 
rose and remained in the air for more than 5 
minutes. 

Result: 

Temperature just before the levitation = 24° C. 

Temperature just after the levitation =» 24° C. 

The greatest care was taken to get this result 
accurate and I am certain that there was no 
change of temperature exceeding % degree C. 
Hence it would seem that no, or very little, heat 
energy is abstracted from the table for the pur- 
pose of producing the phenomenon. 

Experiment 37: Temperature of the psychic 
cantilever and psychic stuff generally. 

The table being levitated, I held a Centigrade 
thermometer (of length about 6 inches) by the 
end and waved it about under the table. I 
slowly moved the thermometer across the space 
under the table, from legs to legs, at nearly all 
heights from floor to surface, covering prac- 
tically all the space below table. This process 
occupied about 3 minutes, the table remaining 
quite easily in the air all the time. The cross- 
ing of all regions of space immediately below 
table did not affect the phenomenon in the least. 

Result-— There was practically no alteration 



98 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

in temperature from the temperature of the 
room. At the most there may have been a de j 
crease of % degree C. but I am not quite certain 
of it. At any rate the decrease was negligible, 
which seems strange, as the region under the 
levitated table often feels somewhat chill to the 
hand. 

Not e. — If there was a psychic column — or ver- 
tical part of the cantilever — below table, as is 
usually the case, then I must have cut through 
this many times with the thermometer tube dur- 
ing the experiment. I felt, however, no resist- 
ance whatever, and the levitation was not af- 
fected in the least. The reader should note that 
it seems quite possible to cut through the colum- 
nar part of the cantilever without affecting the 
phenomenon, but impossible to cut through that 
part of the structure between table and medium 
without causing table to drop. 

I placed a Fahrenheit thermometer, which 
was clipped to a wooden frame, on the floor 
within the circle and told the operators to touch 
the bulb with a psychic rod, and to pile psychic 
stuff upon it if they could. They were very 
quickly moving the instrument about the floor 
and apparently doing what was asked. 

Result. — No difference of temperature from 
the temperature of the room. 



MISCELLANEOUS 99 

SCREENS IN FRONT OF THE MEDIUM 

Experiment 38: Wire netting in front of me- 
dium. 

A piece of wire netting having holes through 
it about one square inch area, height about 2% 
feet and some 3 feet long, was placed in front 
of the medium, between her and the table. The 
sitter on each side of the medium held an end 
of it and put his foot on the bottom of it so as 
to keep the lower part of it on the floor. The 
consequence was that the operators were not 
able to act on the table except through the net- 
ting. 

I asked the operators either to levitate the 
table or to move it about. 

Result. — The table did not levitate, and did 
not move (it did move a little on two occasions 
but it was doubtful if the wire net were not 
touching the table at one point at the time). 
The operators were given plenty of time and evi- 
dently made great efforts to do what was asked 
of them. But the result was failure. The wire 
netting itself was often nearly pulled out of the 
hands of those holding it as the cantilever arm 
evidently tried to get through. 

Experiment 39: Potato sack in front of me- 
dium. 
A fortnight after Experiment 38 was carried 
out I tried another kind of screen, viz., a cloth 



100 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL" SCIENCE 

one. To be exact, it was a ripped-open potato 
sack and was of very open texture. When held 
up to the light the interstices between the 
threads were sufficiently great to allow one to 
see through. 

The sitters on each side of the medium (my- 
self assisting) held this screen in their hands, 
keeping it between her and the table. The sit- 
ters also put their feet on the bottom of it to 
keep it on the floor. The operators were asked 
to levitate the table, or move it about (if they 
could) through the screen. 

After a few minutes the screen was pushed 
violently outwards by the psychic rod pressing 
on it. So great was the force applied that the 
three of us who were holding it could only with 
the greatest difficulty keep it in position (on 
one occasion, indeed, it was pushed clean out of 
our hands). The location of the pressure was 
quite low down, near the floor. 

Results — After several futile trials the oper- 
ators' gave up the attempt, saying that they 
could not get the structure through the screen, 
a fact which was perfectly obvious to me. 'The 
end of the psychic rod would appear to be solid 
or "materialised," and hence could not be pushed 
through the interstices of the cloth. 

At first sight these negative results obtained 
with the wire netting and cloth screen may seem 



MISCELLANEOUS 101 

strange. For does not the structure go through 
the clothing of the medium? It must do so 
if it issues from her body, and it seems to suffer 
no hindrance when so passing. Why, therefore, 
do quite porous screens when placed 6 inches in 
front of her prove altogether impenetrable to 
the psychic arm? 

In order to find out something about this I 
wrapped the cloth screen (the potato sack) 
round the medium's body in the manner of an 
apron, tucking it round her tightly and putting 
it under her boots on the floor, so that, if the 
structure did issue it must go through the screen 
which was thus practically a part of her dress. 
The operators were asked to move the table 
about the floor and to levitate it. 

Result. — The table was moved about the floor 
several times fairly easily, but could not be levi- 
tated. The phenomenon was evidently much 
more difficult when the medium was wrapped 
round with the sack than when she was free of 
it. 

Other screens were tried of various kinds of 
cloth and cloth nets of several sizes of mesh. 
With the nets small movements of the table were 
sometimes obtained when such nets were placed 
upright before the medium a foot or so in front 
of her. I do not intend to go at length into this 
question here. Briefly, it may be shown that 



102 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 



** 



L (l) the free end of an ordinary sized psychic 
rod cannot penetrate ordinary closely woven 
cloth screens when such screens are placed 
more than inch or two in front of the medium. 

(2) if, however, such screens be wrapped 
tightly round the body of the medium, and espe- 
cially so round her feet and ankles, fairly strong 
psychic action can take place through them. 

(3) the closer such screens are to the body of 
the medium the stronger the psychic action 
through them. 

(4) some slight psychic action can occur 
through fairly open cloth network placed a foot 
or more distant from the medium. 

The reason for all this, as I shall show in a 
later work, is^ that the materialisation of the 
working or free end of the psychic rod occurs 
very close to the skin of the medium and even 
sometimes directly upon her skin. It is this ma- 
terialised film of matter which, being formed at 
a maximum of an inch or two from her body, 
cannot pass through the screens ; that is to say, 
the end of the psychic rod is a film of ordinary 
solid matter and this, of course, cannot pass 
through matter interposed in its path. The thin- 
nest psychic rods (about the thickness of a lead 
pencil) can get through a comparatively small 
mesh (see (4) above). 



MISCELLANEOUS 103 

Experiment 40 : To see if the operators could 
write a message with a pencil, 

A piece of brown paper was placed on the 
floor within the circle under the table, and two 
pencils (constructed by pieces of thick lead be- 
ing inserted in wooden cylinders about 6 inches 
long and y 2 inch diameter) were laid on top of 
the paper. The operators were soon moving the 
pencils about, raising them and dropping them 
on the floor, scraping with them and so on. When 
the brown paper was examined it was found to 
have a large number of pencil lines upon it, but 
no formed letters. The floor was similarly 
marked. 

Experiment 41 : Attempt to weigh the psychic 
"body of the medium. 

Many spiritualists and psychic investigators 
assert that man has two bodies, the physical one 
with which we are well acquainted and an im- 
material or ethereal one about which we know 
nothing. The latter is supposed to be the dupli- 
cate of the former as regards shape and even to 
be the frame upon which it is built up. It is 
also supposed to be the vehicle through which 
man functions after death. 

The reader should note that the operators 



104 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

themselves say that each of us possesses this 
psychic body in addition to the physical. 

I once tried to weigh the psychic body of my 
medium. She was seated on a weighing ma- 
chine and I asked the operators to exteriorise 
her psychic body, i. e., to remove it from her 
physical body beyond the limits of the weighing 
machine. I wished to see if there would be any 
decrease in the weight of the medium when this 
was done, i. e., if her psychic body was suscepti- 
ble to the force of gravity. 

On the operators giving three little raps on 
the floor as a sign to me that they had done what 
I asked, I found that the medium's weight had 
decreased by about 8 lb. but that the decrease 
did not remain constant at 8 lb. but became 
less and less until there was practically no dimi- 
nution at all ; and during the whole experiment 
the operators declared that the medium's psychic 
body remained exteriorised or placed beyond the 
limits of the weighing machine. 

I thought at the time that the experiment was 
a failure and I am not now sure that there is 
much in it. It has, however, occurred to me as 
just possible that when the operators tried to 
remove the medium's psychic body they were 
unable to remove it per se, but had to take some 
physical matter along with it, i.e., some gross 
matter was mixed with the psychic body and, 



MISCELLANEOUS 105 

this was gradually returned to the medium's 
physical body, as was evidenced by the gradual 
return of her weight, leaving the psychic form 
more and more nearly pure. 



CHAPTER IY 

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 

The experiments described complete what I 
may call my investigation into the mechanical 
aspects of the phenomena at the Goligher circle. 
Upon them I rely for definite information — as 
apart from mere hypothesis which hitherto has 
been the only attempt at solution — concerning 
snch problems as the levitation of bodies without 
physical contact, the movement of bodies about 
the floor of the room, raps, knocks and so forth. 
I hope later on to show how these phenomena are 
only a special case of still simpler phenomena, 
i.e., those which occur with contact when the 
hands of the sitters, for instance, are upon the 
table and all sorts of violent movements occur 
not due, apparently, to muscular pressure. And 
I am going now to analyse the results obtained 
so that future investigators may have something 
to work upon, something which has at least the 
merit of experimental observation behind it and 
is therefore more than mere hypothesis. 

Let us first consider the phenomenon of levi- 
tation. All the results obtained in the first series 

106 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 107 

of experiments were in agreement with the the- 
ory that a rigid beam or cantilever issues from 
some part of the medium's body. I have shown 
(see p. 34 seq.) that because the levitated body 
in those tests never weighed much more than 10 
lb. while the medium was under experimental 
observation, that the moment of the weight of 
such body was insufficient to cause the medium 
to topple over in her chair. But we should ex- 
pect that if the cantilever theory is a true ex- 
planation of the levitation process, that if the 
weight of the levitated body was gradually in- 
creased a moment would at length be reached 
which would have this effect. This was found to 
be so (see Experiments 1 and 2). Therefore, the 
cantilever theory received further corroboration. 
Accordingly, while not attempting to lay down 
an absolute law which may not need revision in 
the future, we may say provisionally that 
(1) The cantilever theory is correct as explain- 
ing one method of levitation. 
The question then arises whether the canti- 
lever method is the only one used during levi- 
tation. There were several ordinary observa- 
tional phenomena (as apart from experimental 
ones) which seemed to show there was another 
method in use. For instance, I had often seen 
the table levitated a foot or more in the air and 
a strong man pressing down upon it with all his 
strength who was nevertheless quite unable to 



108 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

depress it to the floor. Yet the medium in this 
case showed no signs of toppling over, although 
the applied moment, on the cantilever theory, 
must have been more than sufficient to cause her 
to do so. Was another method in use? Experi- 
ments 2, 3, and 4 show that there was. Instead 
of a cantilever a beam evidently projected itself 
from the medium's body to the floor under the 
table or to the floor between the medium and the 
table ; from that point a more or less vertical pro- 
jection rose to the table. 

The net result was that most of the reaction 
was taken by the floor and not by the body of 
the medium, and hence there was practically no 
tendency to overturn on the medium's part. 
There was, in short, a psychic strut between the 
levitated table and the floor. The interesting 
Experiment 2 seems to show both processes in 
operation consecutively. Therefore, we may say 
(2) For levitated bodies of considerable weight 
a strut method is used. 

This explains some of the points which seemed 
inconsistent in the first series of experiments. 

The next questions that arise are : When is a 
cantilever used for levitation and when a strut? 
The answer is, that for comparatively light bod- 
ies a cantilever is almost invariably used and 
for heavy bodies or where the applied forces are 
great, a strut. The cantilever is a simpler piece 
of psychic mechanism than a strut. It is more 



ANALYSIS OF. RESULTS 109 

easily constructed. It does not require the ex- 
penditure of so much psychic energy. Therefore, 
it is used wherever possible. One has to remem- 
ber that the psychic energy available in the se- 
ance room is strictly limited and that the more 
used up in any one phenomenon, the less the 
number of phenomena. 

I have often watched the gradual petering out 
of phenomena at a circle owing to the lack of 
psychic energy, though often enough, on the 
other hand, phenomena are at their best to- 
wards the close of the seance time. In the latter 
case the original available energy was very 
great, the circle was harmonious and every one 
was in good health. 

The operators themselves declare that for light 
bodies a cantilever is used and for heavy bodies 
a strut; which statements, as I have shown, are 
in agreement with experimental facts. There- 
fore, 

(3) The cantilever method of levitation is made 
use of for light bodies or where the ap- 
plied forces are small, and the strut meth- 
od for heavy bodies or when the applied 
forces are large. 
In the first series of experiments there was 
considerable doubt as to what happened to the 
weight of the medium when the cantilever arm 
rested on the scalepan of a spring balance while 
the table was levitated above it. A very incom- 



110 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

plete test of tha? series seemed to show that 
the weight of the medium actually increased. 
But a number of new experiments, very carefully 
carried out, showed that the weight of the me- 
dium really decreased regularly during this kind 
of levitation, and that, in fact, the reading on 
the spring balance minus the weight of the levi- 
tated table was, allowing for the experimental 
inaccuracies of the case, the actual amount of 
the decrease (see Experiments 6, 7, and 8). This 
is in agreement with the mechanics of a beam 
fixed to the medium's body and acted on by the 
given forces at its extremity. 

The problem as to what happened to the weight 
of the medium when the weight of the table 
standing on the floor either upright or upside 
down was increased on demand, was not solved 
in the first series of tests. Experiments 10, 11, 
and 12, however, show pretty clearly that the 
medium's weight is reduced and that the amount 
of the reduction is equal, allowing for experi- 
mental inaccuracies, to the increased weight tem- 
porarily given the table. So the visitor to this, 
or any similar circle, may be pretty sure, when 
he finds that the seance table has become so 
heavy that he cannot lift it, or only lift it with 
difficulty, that the medium's weight is at the 
time correspondingly reduced. He is, in fact, 
trying to raise the medium when he attempts to 
lift the table under these conditions, though in 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 111 

a manner which probably he never dreams of. 
The psychic arm projecting from the medium's 
body has hold of some part of the table with its 
free end (sometimes the under-surface and some- 
times the legs of the table) and is pulling down- 
wards, i.e., pressing it against the floor and thus 
apparently increasing its weight. The experi- 
mental results agree with the mechanics of the 
problem. 

Several correspondents have written to me 
asking why the medium and the chair on which 
she was sitting were not bodily moved along the 
floor of the room or overturned, when a man 
pushed on the table as it stood on the floor, hori- 
zontally inwards towards the medium. If the 
cantilever theory is true and there was a rigid 
psychic bar connecting the table to the body of 
the medium, it was reasonable to suppose that 
for large forces applied to the table the medium 
and her chair would be forced along the floor. 
But at ordinary observational or demonstration 
seances this never occurred. At one seance three 
men pushed inwards on the table with all their 
strength — one even pushed backwards with his 
foot against the nearest wall to get a better lev- 
erage — but they were unable to make the table 
budge as it stood on the floor some feet from 
the medium. I decided to investigate the mat- 
ter (see Experiments 13, 14, and 16). It is now 



112 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

obvious that, as in the case of levitation, there 
are two methods in use : 

(4) A simple psychic arm connects the table to 

the medium — a bar which does not touch 
the floor — when the pressures applied to 
the table are light, or likely to be insuffi- 
cient to move the medium's chair over the 
floor against friction. 

(5) An inclined psychic strut connects the table 

to the floor and thence to the body of the 
medium when the pressures applied to the 
table are likely to be heavy and sufficient 
to move the medium and her chair along 
the floor. 
Fig. 25 shows such a strut. It grips the leg 
of the table at A, descends to the floor at K, and 
thence proceeds upwards into the medium's body. 
AK would seemingly in most cases be fairly 
short. At K the psychic structure actually grips 
the floor by a kind of suction effect. It does not 
merely rest upon it. The reader can therefore 
readily see what happens when muscular pres- 
sure is applied to the table in the direction of the 
arrow. The pressure is transmitted to the floor, 
and so long as the bar AK is stiff enough to 
withstand the compressive stress and bending 
moment and so long as the grip which K has 
on the floor does not relax, there will be prac- 
tically no effect on the medium. This is what 
occurs when in a demonstration seance a man 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 



113 



is invited to push on the table as hard as he can. 
Occasionally the grip at K gives a little and in 
that case the me- 
dium and her 
chair are actu- 
ally pushed back 
along the floor 
(see p. 64). 

There is an im- 
portant point 
about this type 
of psychic struc- 
ture which I 
wish now to men- 
tion. If the arm 
AK (fig. 25) is 
fairly short, if 
it is sufficiently 
rigid, and if the 
grip of K on the 
floor is very firm, 
practically the 
whole of the re- 
action is taken 
by the floor. We 
have, in brief, a 
short rigid strut 
fixed to the floor 
at one end and to the table at the other. Hence it 
follows that the portion KS of the structure need 



r 




55^ 

< 


) 
















L 




i 


i 



> 

Q 

Of 
o 



-J 



112 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

not be proportionately strong; in fact it might 
be absent altogether without affecting the mag- 
nitude of the phenomenon. That it is altogether 
absent, however, is not the case ; for occasionally, 
as I have mentioned, the grip which the part K 
has on the floor relaxes and when this happens 
the medium and her chair move back bodily 
along the floor, for the structure AKS becomes 
then practically a simple unsupported rod be- 
tween the table and the medium, and consider- 
able mechanical pressure is transmitted to the 
medium. We have here then a glimpse of the 
methods used in phenomena of a more advanced 
type than those which occur at the Goligher 
circle. If the mechanical pressure and reactions 
can be thrown off the medium and transmitted 
instead to the floor, and if at the same time con- 
nection can be maintained with the medium, 
then it is obvious that psychic structures might 
be built up at a considerable distance from the 
medium — at a much greater distance than occurs 
with Miss Goligher. But in phenomena of the 
Goligher type, which depend for their spectacu- 
lar value on force magnitude, these structures 
have of necessity to be exceedingly rigid and 
strong and hence much psychic energy is used 
per unit length, if I may put it that way ; there- 
fore, although such structures may sometimes 
not be simple projections from the body of the 
medium such as psychic arms issuing forth into 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 115 

space and gripping the table without touching 
the floor, but may be built up mechanisms for 
transmitting mechanical pressures to the floor 
as shown in Fig. 25, yet such mechanisms, owing 
to the magnitude of the psychic energy and mat- 
ter used in their construction and to the neces- 
sity of continually feeding them on a large scale, 
can only be constructed at a comparatively short 
distance from the medium. In order that phe- 
nomena should occur a long way from the me- 
dium the two following conditions must be ful- 
filled: 

(a) The phenomena must be such that direct 

mechanical reaction is not upon the me- 
dium. 

(b) There must be no very large force magni- 

tudes involved. 

Sometimes it would appear that phenomena 
involving considerable force magnitudes do oc- 
cur at a considerable distance from the medium, 
but in those cases I think it will invariably be 
found that such phenomena last only for a very 
short period of time and that there are consid- 
erable empty intervals of time both before and 
after their occurrence; whereas at the Goligher 
circle phenomena of great magnitude often en- 
dure over considerable intervals of time. 

The reaction falling directly upon the body of 
the medium means that the whole structure from 
the medium's body outwards must be of suffi- 



116 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

cient strength to resist the largest direct and 
bending stresses imposed, and this would imply 
that much psychic matter has to be used. There- 
fore, in order to have phenomena at any distance 
from the medium involves the reaction being not 
borne by her, but by the floor of the seance room. 

The reader will now understand the essential 
scientific difference between phenomena such as 
materialisation and those occurring at the Goli- 
gher circle. In the former we have a psychic 
structure concentrated in space, with mechani- 
cal reaction on the floor (due to weight of ma- 
terialised body) and a long unstressed link prob- 
ably connecting structure to medium; in the 
latter we have for the most part a psychic struc- 
ture occupying a comparatively large space, with 
mechanical reaction naturally on medium but 
sometimes with special trouble placed on the 
floor, and if the reaction is on the floor, only a 
short unstressed link connecting structure to 
medium. 

It will be seen on studying Experiment 18 in 
which the medium was under experimental ob- 
servation while she and the chair on which she 
was sitting were bodily moved about the floor 
of the seance room, that the only likely theory 
which accounts for the facts is one in which an 
unstressed, or only feebly stressed, feeding or 
connecting link unites the actual pushing struc- 
ture with the medium's body. The reaction is 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 117 

in this case taken by the floor of the room and 
none of it apparently finds its way to the me- 
dium. 

Likewise, in some of the cases of levitation of 
the table where there is a strut below the table 
and where the base of this strut grips the floor 
adhesively, we have, in all probability, a fur- 
ther case of an unstressed or feebly stressed link 
connecting the base of the strut with body of 
medium; not in all cases of levitation, remem- 
ber, such as where a true cantilever arm was 
bent up at its end to reach the level of a spring 
balance (see R.P.P., ch. vii) but only in those 
cases where the base of strut is firmly fixed to 
the floor. 

I wish to impress upon the reader this idea of 
an unstressed or slightly stressed link connect- 
ing the main portion of a psychic mechanism 
with the body of the medium. Many of my ex- 
periments decidedly suggest that it is present. 
(6) An unstressed or but feebly stressed psy- 
chic link often connects a psychic struc- 
ture which is "out" in the seance room, to 
the body of the medium. 
The question arises as to whether the struc- 
ture itself possesses weight. I may say that this 
is a difficult matter to determine experimentally. 
One can never be sure when noting changes of 
weight on the part of the medium as she sits on 
the weighing machine and simultaneous readings 



118 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

on another weighing machine placed on the floor 
within the circle space, whether the results are 
wholly due to mechanical forces exerted by the 
psychic structure or whether they are partly 
due to the weight of part of the structure itself. 
To illustrate this point we will consider the fol- 
lowing example: 




Floor Level. 

Fig. 26. 

Fig. 26 shows diagrammatically the medium 
M seated on the weighing machine A. On the 
floor about three feet beyond her is another 
weighing machine B. The operators are told to 
press downwards steadily on B. We find that 
the increase of weight on B is practically equal 
to the decrease on A. The operators are pre- 
sumably pressing downwards on B with some 
kind of a psychic structure S. We have now the 
two cases to consider, 

(a) that in which the structure S is weightless, 
and 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 119 

(b) that in which the structure S possesses 
weight. 

If (a) is in accordance with fact, the down- 
ward weight on B is due simply to mechanical 
pressure. If (b) is correct the downward weight 
on B is due to mechanical pressure plus pressure 
due to part of the weight of the structure S. In 
either case the experimental result is the same 
and the test affords no means of distinguishing 
whether the structure possesses weight or not. 

Again, if I ask the operators simply to rest the 
end of the structure on B but not to exert any 
mechanical pressure, and I then find that there 
is a reading on B, I cannot be sure that this read- 
ing is solely due to the weight of part of the 
structure; for the operators may really be ex- 
erting mechanical pressure and I have no means 
of checking their statement that they are not do- 
ing so. On the other hand if I find there is no 
reading on B, I cannot be sure that the struc- 
ture is weightless for I am unable to say if the 
structure is really resting on B at all. 

The reader must remember that these struc- 
tures are practically invisible even in quite good 
red light and that if the hand is put through one 
of them the only thing felt is a kind of disagree- 
able, cold, spore-like sensation, and the placing 
of the hand in its line generally breaks up the 
structure. The difficulty, therefore, of deter- 
mining if the structure possesses weight by any 



120 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

method in which psychic pressure is exerted is 
obvious. A method which might be used would 
be to determine an alteration in the position of 
the centre of gravity of the medium. Her centre 
of gravity would have first to be accurately 
found when no psychic structure projected and 
then again with the structure projecting. For 
the latter, the operators would have to be asked 
to project a psychic arm from the medium's body 
into the air in front of her, and to hold it in 
position there. I have found that they can do 
this. If the arm possessed weight the position of 
her centre of gravity would of course alter. Such 
an experiment would be very difficult to carry 
out satisfactorily. 

I may say that the operators themselves de- 
clare that their structures possess weight. If 
we could be quite sure that the operators do ex- 
actly what is asked of them, for example, that 
they simply rest a structure on the scalepan of 
a weighing machine when required to do so, and 
exert no mechanical pressure whatever, then the 
solution of the problem would be easy. For al- 
ways under these conditions it is found that the 
structure possesses weight. 

If the reader will now turn to Experiments 
19-23 he will find some data having to do with 
this question of the weight of the various psychic 
structures. The extraordinary results there ob- 
tained go to the very heart of the matter. It will 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 121 

be noted that I asked the operators to do various 
things : 

(a) To place loosely on the floor psychic matter 

used for the building up of structures. 

(b) To build up a psychic rod of large dimen- 

sions and to rest the end of it on the floor. 

(c) To take as much matter from the medium's 

body as they possibly could and to rest 
it on the floor. 

In each of the above cases a large decrease in 
weight of the medium was noted, amounting to 
about half her weight in Experiment 23. 

What sort of matter is this that is seemingly 
removed from the medium's body, is used to 
build up psychic structures, and possesses 
weight? Here we have the great problem con- 
nected with psychic phenomena. Its solution 
will advance our knowledge of the subject enor- 
mously. Certainly this matter — if it be matter 
and a great number of experiments tend to show 
this is the case — is not in any form with which 
we are acquainted in a scientific sense. Al- 
though, of course, the number of experiments I 
have carried out is quite insufficient to enable 
me to lay down any absolute law (it will take 
many men in all probability many generations 
to do that) yet I think I am justified in mention- 
ing some of the points which have struck me as 
important in connection with the case, and the 
one thing above all others that has astonished 



122 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

me is that this matter seems to have practically 
no palpability. It is matter without palpability, 
but it seems to possess weight. The method by 
which it is expelled from the medium's body is 
a mystery. Only this is certain — that it is usu- 
ally expelled in fluxes, not steadily, and that the 
difficulty in expelling it increases with the quan- 
tity expelled. 

(7) In order to build up the psychic structures 

and to produce phenomena matter seems 
to be driven out of the medium's body. 

(8) This matter seems to possess weight, some- 

times as much as 50 lb. 

(9) It seems to be present in a form with which 

science is not acquainted. 
(10) Small amounts may be expelled steadily 
from the medium's body, but after a cer- 
tain amount has been driven forth, the 
expulsion of the rest is evidently difficult 
and is accomplished in fluxes. 
Now, one would think that if 50 lb. weight of 
matter was driven from the medium's body, the 
medium would visibly shrink in size. I did not 
notice any difference in Miss Goligher. But I 
have seen photographs of the Italian medium Za- 
rancini while he was bodily levitated, i.e., raised 
and at rest in the air, and in his case a curious 
translucency of his body is observable. He seems 
to be partly transparent, although his bulk or 
volume does not appear to be much altered. 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 123 

Probably an invisible psychic structure is below 
him supporting him in the air, the material for 
which has been driven from his body in the man- 
ner such matter is driven from Miss Goligher. 
Thus the medium's body may not much alter in 
bulk but its density may substantially decrease 
during the occurrence of powerful telekinetic 
phenomena. 

I am not going into a detailed account of the 
psychic structures at the Goligher circle in this 
volume. It is sufficient to say here that these 
structures are quite complicated mechanisms and 
by no means the simple things we might have 
expected. 

It is now necessary to consider the fact that 
the medium never feels anything in the nature 
of mechanical pressure on any part of her body. 
Even in the case when she and the chair on which 
she was sitting toppled over during heavy levi- 
tation (see Experiments 1 and 2), she felt noth- 
ing. She told me that the feeling was exactly sim- 
ilar to what one gets when sitting on a seesaw. 
I wondered if a portion of the reaction, which 
was apparently on the medium, was not really 
upon some part of her chair, or on the drawing- 
board under her chair, or on the platform or 
rail of the weighing machine, for, if the reaction 
were upon any or all of these, the weighing ma- 
chine would still include it. All one could say 
definitely was, that in a simple case of levita- 



124 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

tion the whole reaction appeared to be upon the 
medium's body, although it might possibly be 
upon some part of the apparatus in her immedi- 
ate neighbourhood which was resting on the plat- 
form of the weighing machine or upon the ma- 
chine itself. Experiment 24 seems to show, how- 
ever, that the whole of the reaction really falls 
somehow directly upon the body of the medium. 
How can it be that a rigid structure some two 
or three feet long can issue from the medium's 
body and support 30 or 40 lb. weight at its 
end and the medium experience no inconven- 
ience? If a rigid bar of this nature entered some 
soft part of her body, say the region of the stom- 
ach, the flesh would be lacerated by such a lev- 
erage as that mentioned above. How then is it 
that the medium is never injured by these me- 
chanical reactions and never even feels them? 
A possible explanation is as follows : 

The psychic structure where it enters the body 
of the medium is composed of a kind of matter 
which is unknown. Let us call it X-matter. This 
X-matter can transmit through itself ordinary 
direct and shear stresses, but it cannot transmit 
such stresses from itself to ordinary matter. In 
order to accomplish this it has first to be con- 
verted into another form of matter which we may 
term Y-matter (really the kind of matter vis- 
ible to the eye at a materialisation seance; in 
other words Y-matter is what is known to psy- 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 125 

chic research students as "materialised" mat- 
ter). We have then X-matter which can only 
be converted into Y-matter (in a manner analo- 
gous to water being converted into ice), and 
stresses transmitted through the former can be 
sent on through it to the latter. The Y-matter 
can act on physical objects in the seance room. 

The rough outline of a psychic structure is 
then as follows: 

(a) Free end (which we will suppose is gripping 

the seance table) ; Y-matter. 

(b) Body of structure: X-matter. The structure 

as it enters the physical body of the me- 
dium is entirely composed of X-matter. 

(c) Within the body of the medium the X-mat- 

ter composing the structure is again con- 
verted into Y-matter. 

The sequence of mechanical action is as fol- 
lows: 

The Y-matter at the free end of, say, the psy- 
chic cantilever, grips the wood of the under-sur- 
face of the table which is then levitated. Weight 
of table is transmitted to this Y-matter and from 
the latter to the X-matter of the body of struc- 
ture. The mechanical stress is transmitted along 
the X-matter right into the body of the medium. 
At the place where the structure enters the body 
of the medium, no stress of any kind is trans- 
mitted to her flesh, because, at this particular 
place we have X-matter and ordinary physical 



126 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

matter in juxtaposition, and stress cannot be di- 
rectly transmitted from the former to the lat- 
ter. Within the interstices of the medium's body 
the X-matter of the psychic structure probably 
ramifies out and each ramification at its extrem- 
ity becomes Y-matter and this Y-matter is at- 
tached to various interior portions of the me- 
dium's body, which thus finally, and indirectly 
takes the weight of the table. 

For the same reason, also, practically no pal- 
pability is experienced when one cuts through 
the psychic structure with the hand, or with, 
say, a piece of wood. The X-matter of the body 
of the structure cannot directly transmit stresses 
to the hand or the wood. It requires first to be 
converted into its derivative, Y-matter, in order 
to be able to do so. 

This very imperfect little sketch will give the 
reader some idea of the problems we have to 
attack when we deal with psychic phenomena of 
the physical order. That something analogous 
to the above actually occurs I have little doubt. 
Whether the X-matter is matter existing tempo- 
rarily on a fourth-dimensional plane, or whether 
it is some form of matter with which we can one 
day deal I would not like to conjecture. 

The operators themselves declare that the me- 
dium is somehow protected from the ordinary 
mechanical stresses to which she would natu- 
rally seem to be exposed. But they can tell us 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 127 

nothing at all satisfactory as to how the protec- 
tion is afforded. 

Although I have no direct proof it would seem 
also that during the occurrence of phenomena, 
the body of the medium is less sensitive than 
it normally is to tactual impressions. The 
medium is never in trance, but from late obser- 
vations I would hesitate to say that her state 
of consciousness is quite normal. Especially at 
the commencement of a seance she dislikes to 
be spoken to. But if there is any abnormality 
it is very slight, indeed, and would altogether 
escape the notice of any one who had not a pro- 
longed acquaintance with her under ordinary 
and under seance conditions. 

I turn now to a consideration of the strange 
results obtained when the medium touched the 
table with her hand, feet and with articles such 
as pieces of wood or glass (Experiments 29, 30, 
and 31). 

The most startling fact that emerges from 
these tests is that the levitated table drops in 
from one to two seconds if the medium touches 
it with her bare hands. If she touches it with 
her gloved hands it takes longer to drop. If 
she touches it with a glass rod, or a bar of iron 
it still drops. If she touches it with a piece of 
twisted paper or a piece of wood it does not 
drop. When she touches it with her boot it does 
not drop. It does not drop when she holds her 



128 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

hand in the air above it. When the members 
of the circle singly or altogether touch it it does 
not drop bnt immediately the medium adds her 
hand to the pile it drops. 

What are we to make of all this? Why espe- 
cially should the table invariably drop in from 
one to two seconds after the medium puts her 
bare hand upon it? 

The most likely reason is that there is some- 
thing in the table which is essential to levitation 
and which cannot remain in the table when the 
medium puts her hand on it but must flow along 
her hand and arm into her body. The experi- 
ments would indicate that the properties of this 
substance — I call it a substance, but of course, 
it may not be a substance in the ordinary sense 
— are as follows : 

(1) It must be of a very fine nature and invisi- 

ble, for nothing of it can be seen on the 
table. 

(2) It has something to do with the medium, for 

when people other than the medium and 
not in physical contact with her body 
touch the levitated table it does not drop. 

(3) The medium's bare hand is most effective 

in conducting this substance from the 
table to her body. 

(4) Some substances conduct it more slowly 

than others, while some do not seem to 
conduct it at all. 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 129 

(5) The air does not conduct it. 

(6) From several persons experimented with, 

my body seemed the only one which con- 
ducted it and that only very slowly. 

(7) It is essential to the phenomenon of levita- 

tion. 

The following remarks are only tentative and 
made on the chance that they may supply a hint 
or two which will be useful to investigators. 

This mysterious "something" which appears 
to be in or on the levitated table is certainly not 
electricity. For one thing its rate of discharge is 
too slow and for another nothing that has ever 
occurred in the seance room has even suggested 
electric action. It is most likely a form of en- 
ergy connected with very small particles of mat- 
ter. Probably these particles are accumulated 
in and upon the wood of the table and their in- 
herent energy used up by the operators as re- 
quired. They are probably particles connected 
with the nervous system of the medium. 

The psychic structure seems to issue, as a gen- 
eral thing, from the lower part of the legs of the 
medium. These energy particles seem to return 
via her hands. There may be a kind of psychic 
positive pressure in the legs and feet and a kind 
of psychic negative pressure in the arms and 
hands, so that there is a tendency for the parti- 
cles to flow back to her body via the hands and 
arms if a conducting material or path is supplied 



130 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

to them. To use an electrical analogy there is 
a higher psychic voltage in the neighbourhood 
of her ankles than of her hands. 

The reader should clearly try to understand 
the two essential processes that occur in the 
seance room during the occurrence of physical 
phenomena of the telekinetic order. A vast deal 
of experimenting has shown me that these pro- 
cesses are as follows: 

(a) The projection by the operators into the 
seance room of psychic rods, arms or 
structures. These are only temporary 
productions and return to the body of 
the medium, whence they came, at the con- 
clusion of the seance; or more exactly, 
they keep coming and going from the 
medium, as they are required, during the 
seance time. It seems most likely that 
they are composed, or at any rate partly 
composed, of matter borrowed from the 
medium's body, and the weight of this 
matter may, in an extreme case, amount 
to 40 or 50 lb. But at the conclusion of 
the phenomena the structure returns to 
the medium's body and of course all the 
matter with it. Hence this kind of mat- 
ter which the medium supplies is only 
supplied temporarily and the medium at 
the conclusion of the seance loses noth- 
ing. 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 131 

(b) The supplying of some kind of energy which 
is used to enable the psychic structures to 
do their work, i.e., to levitate tables and 
so on. This energy seems also to be as- 
sociated with matter, but not with the 
kind of matter which is used to build up 
the structures. For the matter associated 
with the energy is a permanent loss. It 
is also very much less in quantity than 
the temporarily borrowed structure-mat- 
ter. I have every reason to believe from 
a long experience of the seance room, that 
a physical medium is a person whose phy- 
sical organism is capable of supplying 
temporarily quantities of this structure- 
matter and that a good sitter is a person 
who can supply a quantity of energy- 
matter. In other words the function of 
the medium is to lend from her body psy- 
chic matter and the function of the sit- 
ters is to supply psychic energy. The 
reader will therefore understand that it 
is necessary to have at a circle a number 
of sitters so that a sufficiency of this psy- 
chic energy may be available. 
At the moment, then, we are probably dealing 
with process (b), when we consider the results 
of experiments in which the table drops when 
the medium touches it with her hand. Some of 
this energy-matter has most likely been lodged 



132 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

in the wood of the table so that it may be avail- 
able by the operators as required. The sitters 
have supplied it, but it has become associated in 
some way with the organism of the medium. It 
is what spiritualists loosely term "magnetism" 
and it seems to have a special predilection for 
articles made of wood; that is to say, when 
placed upon wood it does not tend to dissipate 
(see the experiment in which the medium 
touched the levitated table with a piece of wood 
without affecting the levitation) . 

I have carried out some experiments which 
would indicate that at all sittings for physical 
phenomena there is a permanent loss of weight 
amongst the members making up the circle. 
These tests seem to show that it is the sitters and 
not the medium who lose most weight. Some sit- 
ters lose more than others, some lose none, while 
the medium as a rule loses a small amount. In 
K.P.P., ch. viii, the results of one such test 
with the Goligher circle are given. The follow- 
ing are some further results of weighings just 
before and just after seances : 

Eesults for an ordinary table seance where the 
sitters' hands were in contact with the table 
throughout. A drawing-board was placed upon 
the platform of a weighing machine and a chair 
upon the drawing-board. The board and chair 
together weighed 18% lb. and this is included 
in the weights given below— ■* 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 133 

Weights just before Weights Just after 

seance — pounds seance — pounds 

Mr. X. (medium) 163 % 163 % 

Miss A 125 1243^ 

Mrs. B 1423^ 142 

Mrs. C 165% 164% 

The following are the results for the same 
sitters but for another contact seance : 

Weights just before Weights just after 

stance — pounds seance — pounds 

Mr. X (medium) 1643/6 164^ 

Miss A 126 12534 

Mrs. B 141% 141^ 

Mrs.C 164% 164M 

Further similar results will foe found in a later 
chapter dealing with experiments on the "direct 
voice." 

As a control experiment I weighed three 
friends. We then sat round a small table and 
indulged in a game of cards for an hour and 
a quarter. I then re-weighed them but could 
not find the least difference from the former 
weighings in any of them. Needless to say, in 
all 'the above cases proper precautions were 
taken that no material object was added to or 
subtracted from the person of any of the persons 
concerned between the time of the first and last 
weighings. 

Such experiments as these seem to indicate 
that there is a small permanent loss of weight 
amongst the members composing the circle and 
that the sitters are more concerned in it than the 



134 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

medium; and that this loss is quite apart and 
distinct from the temporary and often large 
losses that the medium experiences during the 
seance. I think that this permanent loss is con- 
nected with the psychic energy or "magnetism," 
supplied mostly by the sitters. 

In one flashlight photograph which I have of 
Miss Goligher, taken during a seance, there are 
faint traces of a dark substance issuing from or 
proceeding into each of her fingers as her hands 
rest on her knees. These markings appear like 
faint prolongations of her fingers. They seem to 
go straight down the front of her skirt to the 
neighbourhood of her ankles. 

It is also well known among people who make 
a practice of sitting for "contact" phenomena 
that at the commencement of the seance there 
appears to issue from the tips of the fingers a 
peculiar kind of gaseous substance, the ejecting 
of which can be quite plainly felt. The fingers 
usually become quite cold while this process is 
going on. It always occurs at the beginning of 
the seance and is in abeyance later on. 

Again, too much sitting in circles has a bad 
effect on the health of many people. They seem 
to lose vital or nervous energy, the loss of which 
appears to require a considerable period of time 
to make good. 

So that taking everything into consideration, 
I think there can be little doubt that upon or 



ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 135 

in the levitated table there is accumulated a 
store of psychic energy ; that this energy is con- 
nected with small particles of matter ; that these 
particles have a tendency to return to the body 
of the medium, and that without them no phe- 
nomena are possible. 

Experiments 26, 27, and 28 seem to show that 
the free end of the psychic structure does not 
conduct low-voltage electricity. But if the 
reader will turn to Experiments 80, 81, and 82 
R.P.P., he will find that the structure discharges 
an electroscope. This would appear to show that 
the Y-matter at the extremity is a poor con- 
ductor, in a similar fashion to the skin of the 
human hand, to low- voltage electric currents, but 
that if it touches something which is at a high 
voltage it causes a discharge to earth, just, for 
example, as the hand would do. 

The action of screens placed in front of the 
medium is just what we might expect from our 
knowledge that the free end of the structure is 
materialised, or practically ordinary matter. 
Unless the psychic rods are very small the ma- 
terialised ends cannot be pushed through the 
interstices of the threads or wire. If the screens 
are very close to the medium's body, that is to 
say, practically in contact with her, an imper- 
fect kind of materialisation of the ends may be 
effected beyond the screens and limited psychic 
action may occur. 



CHAPTER % 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

I give below a series of questions which' have 
been addressed to me at various times. I am 
quite aware that the answers are very incom- 
plete, but they are the best I can give at this 
stage of our knowledge of psychic processes and 
phenomena : 

(1) Q. Does the application of force by the 
psychic structure present any analogy to the 
way in which force is transmitted by water 
through a tube? 

A. In some examples of phenomena it does. 
For instance, in the case in which the table is 
turned upside down on the floor and is then ap- 
parently "glued" to the floor, the psychic appa- 
ratus may be likened to a tube projecting from 
the medium and filled with water. In the me- 
dium's end we can suppose there is a piston and 
also a piston at the other end, and that this sec- 
ond piston presses on the table. When a force 
is applied to the first piston, the pressure is 
transmitted through the water to the second and 
thence to the table. 

136 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 137 

Generally, it is possible to conceive of a psy- 
chic structure as a stiff tube filled with an in- 
compressible fluid, the tube itself having the 
power to lengthen and shorten and to move up 
and down. 

It is also possible to imagine that raps, blows, 
etc., could be transmitted through such an ap- 
paratus. 

In the case in which the medium and the chair 
on which she is sitting are bodily pushed along 
the floor, the application of water pressure 
transmitted along tubes is comprehensible (see 
Experiment 18). 

It is necessary to say, however, that the idea 
of fluid pressure transmitted along a rigid tube 
is no more than an analogy. 

(2) Q. Does the psychic structure resist pulls 
as well as pushes? 

A. Yes. It also resists torques. When the 
trumpet is psychically held up in the air, the 
experimenter may grasp the end of it and en- 
deavour to turn it. He finds that he can turn 
it through a few degrees, but that the resist- 
ance to further twisting soon becomes so great 
that he is unable to proceed. The structure 
resists forces applied to its free end just as an 
ordinary solid body does. But the likeness of 
the structure to a solid body does not appear to 
go much further than this. 

(3) Q. Is there any possibility that some, or 



138 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

all, of the energy required for the manifesta- 
tions is a form of heat energy ; i.e., is it possible 
that the operators can abstract supplementary 
energy from a table by slowing down its molec- 
ular movements? 

A. It does not seem likely. During a long 
levitation I could not discover any fall of tem- 
perature in the table (see Experiment 38). 
There is much evidence that the energy required 
is taken only from the bodies of the sitters, such 
evidence including loss of weight, physical fa- 
tigue after a seance, nervous bodily reactions, 
etc. 

(4) Q. In a good seance do phenomena go on 
continuously without periods of rest? 

A. No. They are never continuous. After a 
burst of phenomena there is a period of quies- 
cence as though time were required for the col- 
lection and storage of psychic energy. It would 
appear that at least some of this energy is stored 
on or within the wood of the table (see Experi- 
ments 29, 30, and 31). 

(5) Q. What do you mean when you use the 
term "psychic equilibrium"? 

A. I have used this term, in default of any- 
thing better, to mean that the preliminary stage 
of instability at a seance is over — the stage in 
which phenomena are as a rule weak, sporadic, 
and unreliable, and in which the operators 
would appear to be paying more attention to col-. 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 139 

lecting quantities of psychic energy from the 
bodies of the sitters than to producing really 
good phenomena — and that a kind of equilibrium 
has been established in which there is a reserve 
of energy to draw upon. The two stages are 
analogous, for instance, to that in which steam 
is being raised in a large boiler and that in 
which this process has been completed and the 
boiler is in steady working order. 

(6) Q. What is the medium's condition dur- 
ing and after the seances? Does her respiration 
or pulse increase during levitation? Is she ex- 
hausted at the end? In fact does she supply the 
energy as well as the material? 

A. Her general condition after a seance seems 
much the same as before it. She does not seem 
in the least fatigued, although, she tells me, she 
is inclined to sleep longer than usual the fol- 
lowing morning. I have no data with regard 
to pulse or respiration. During the seance she 
supplies the material but not (or only a very 
little of) the energy. The function of the sit- 
ters is to supply the energy. 

(7) Q. Have raps ever occurred while the me- 
dium has been asleep? 

A. Yes. On several occasions, I have been in- 
formed by her sisters, rapping has taken place 
while she has been sound asleep. Most often 
she was not wakened thereby. The members of 
the circle had a verbal agreement with the op- 



140 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

erators that the latter should not interfere with 
the medium at any time except during seances. 
This arrangement the operators loyally kept to 
with the exception of occasional rapping at 
night in her bedroom, which I think was done 
for some special reason. 

(8) Q. What is your experience of clairvoy- 
ance in connection with the Goligher circle? 

A. Very involved and on the whole unsatis- 
factory. In E.P.P. I gave one example of clair- 
voyance by a lady who is psychically developed 
and who seems really to have seen something of 
the actual physical processes involved. A gen- 
tleman, who has had a fairly good scientific 
training and who is also a psychic, has likewise 
given me an account which agrees to some ex- 
tent with several processes of which he was ig- 
norant. But on the whole the results have been 
disappointing, at any rate as far as descriptions 
of the actual psychic structures are concerned. 
As at all circles, some very wonderful and im- 
possible things are alleged to have been seen by 
people who were under the delusion they pos- 
sessed the clairvoyant faculty. Several persons 
declared that they beheld spirits actually hold- 
ing up the table with their hands — a result which 
would simplify the problem of levitation consid- 
erably if only it were true. 

!With regard to what clairvoyants have seen 
of the operators themselves the same kind of 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 141 

thing holds. I have heard clairvoyants describe 
in minute detail various spirit forms they said 
they saw in the room, and, while they were giv- 
ing their descriptions, raps, loud and happy- 
sounding, were heard on the floor, apparently 
in confirmation of what the clairvoyants saw. 
On the other hand spirit forms have been seen 
which I am sure existed only in the imaginations 
of the "seers" themselves. 

If the experimenter had to depend upon clair- 
voyance for information concerning the psychic 
processes at the Goligher circle he would be 
leaning on a broken reed. I have never received 
the slightest help from it during all the years I 
have been experimenting. In my experience 
clairvoyance is a faculty not much to be depend- 
ed upon even in that region where we might 
expect it to be supreme, the psychic. 

(9) Q. What is your opinion of the question 
of conscious or unconscious fraud at seances for 
physical phenomena? 

A. While recognising that both varieties of 
fraud exist, I am confident that they have been 
much overrated. Even at seances, such as the 
Golighers', where everything is above suspicion, 
where all phenomena can be demonstrated with 
the greatest ease to be genuine to the last de- 
tail, things happen which to a superficial ob- 
server might appear fraudulent. For instance, 
sometimes the medium's body, or portions of her 



142 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

body, make spasmodic kinds of movements when 
heavy raps or impacts are being experienced far 
out in the circle. These are simply the reac- 
tions due to the raps and are what we might ex- 
pect. The seeker after fraud (who, by the way, 
is usually a person with no knowledge ox sci- 
ence) immediately puts them down to impos- 
ture. My experiments, conducted over a long pe- 
riod of time and more thoroughly than any ever 
carried out hitherto, have proved to me beyond 
all question that the medium's body is either 
directly or indirectly the focus of all the me- 
chanical actions which result in phenomena. 
And not only is it the focus but it also seems to 
supply a kind of duplicate of portions of her 
body, which can be temporarily detached and 
projected into the space in front of her. Thus 
things happen in the seance room which, from 
the very nature of the case, sometimes bear a 
superficial appearance of fraud, though, in a 
properly conducted circle it is only superficial, 
and the true and genuine nature of the phenom- 
ena can always be discovered by a little inves- 
tigation. I am therefore chary of accepting off- 
hand any fraud hypothesis. Many of the cases 
of fraud which have been brought forward 
against mediums I know to be untrue, and fur- 
ther, I know (which the authors of the fraud 
theory do not) exactly where the truth lies and 
in what way a genuine manifestation has borne 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 143 

the appearance of a fraudulent one. This occa- 
sional similarity of genuine and fictitious phe- 
nomena is very disconcerting to the investigator 
when he meets it for the first time and has, I 
venture to say, put a period to much promising 
work in the psychic field. But the man who is 
not ready to go thoroughly into details and hunt 
out the ultimate causes of things is of no use in 
the seance room. 

(10) Q. Has there been much interest shown 
in your researches, especially by scientists? 

A. Yes. I have had letters from people in all 
walks of life who wished some point made clearer 
in connection with the phenomena. I have had 
many valuable suggestions with regard to ex- 
perimental work from scientific men in many 
parts of the world. And I am altogether agree- 
ably surprised at the great interest taken gen- 
erally in the subject. To judge from the scath- 
ing articles which occasionally appear in the 
press, an outsider might be justified in conclud- 
ing that psychic phenomena and psychic subjects 
in general are mere humbug, and that those who 
deal with them are also humbugs, though per- 
haps self-deluded ones. The superior attitude 
of most of the press is highly amusing. It is 
based, I think, on the assumption that the gen- 
eral public know nothing of psychic things, 
whereas the truth is that nowadays eight people 
out of ten know something of them. I should 



144 [EXPERIMENTS IN. PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

say, judging from my experience, that the news- 
paper which takes upon itself the responsibility 
of declaring everything connected with psychic 
research to be humbug, and which even conducts 
a campaign against it, will surely offend a host 
of its readers. People do not go about advertis- 
ing their belief that a spiritual world actually 
exists — a world whose existence can to some ex- 
tent be demonstrated by experiment— but never- 
theless there are very many people in the world 
to-day with this belief and their number is stead- 
ily growing. 

The kind of work which I have carried out 
and, in fact, am still continuing, has for its 
object the placing of as many of the processes 
as possible connected with psychic phenomena 
before the educated world, so that others may 
be encouraged to follow, whereby in time such an 
accumulation of scientific testimony and facts 
may be gathered that no thoughtful man may 
any longer doubt. I desire to help in the dis- 
covery of the psychic laws, which are as real 
as physical ones, so that in the years to come 
there may be no more mystery. If there is no 
mystery there will be no mystery mongers. 

(11) Q. Is ordinary scientific experience of 
much avail when conducting experiments in the 
seance room? 

A. In conducting experiments in an ordinary 
mechanics laboratory we work with certain in- 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 145 

struments or machines which can be relied upon 
to do what they are asked to do ; in other words, 
if we make proper dispositions we can obtain a 
certain amount of accurate results for a given 
amount of mental and physical work. We apply, 
for instance, a force of a certain number of 
pounds to a certain part of a given machine and 
we can always rely upon a certain effect due to 
this force. In psychic work it does not follow 
that a given cause produces always the same 
effect. In ordinary scientific work our tools are 
obedient to our commands. Unknown factors 
can be almost eliminated. In psychic work our 
tools are often anything but obedient to our 
commands and the unknown factors are predom- 
inant. 

The truth is that the human factor in psychic 
work is the most troublesome and unreliable. No 
physical phenomena can be produced without 
the aid of a human being (usually termed a me- 
dium) and in addition several other human be- 
ings (called sitters) are often required. 

If the experimenter can overcome the great 
stumbling block of the human factor, he will 
make progress and will find a use for his scien- 
tific knowledge. But until he learns, possibly 
only by long experience, how to control the 
human element necessarily concerned in his ex- 
periments, he will not make much headway. I 



'146 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

was lucky in having a medium like Miss Goligher 
to work with. 

(12) Q. In the two years that have passed 
since the publication of "The Reality of Psychic 
Phenomena," have you changed your opinion 
in regard to the identity of the "operators"? 

A. No. I am quite satisfied in my own mind 
that the operators are discarnate human beings. 
Of course I am not primarily interested in this 
phase of the matter. The methods by which the 
phenomena are produced are what I am chiefly 
concerned with, and whether the operators are 
what they claim to be or are masquerading sub- 
conscious elements of the medium's brain does 
not much matter to me. It is sufficient for my 
purpose that there are intelligences of some kind 
in charge of the phenomena. Nevertheless I have 
seen and heard sufficient at the Goligher and 
other circles to convince me that man does not 
really die at physical death but passes on to 
another state of existence, and that, for the most 
part, the entities who demonstrate at good se- 
ances are really human beings who have so 
passed on. 

(13) Q. What is the best form of phenomena 
considered solely from the point of view of ob- 
taining messages from inhabitants of the psychic 
realm? 

A. In my opinion, the "direct voice," At a 
direct voice seance people who have "died" speak 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 147 

audibly in an objective voice. Many readers 
will probably not believe this, but nevertheless, 
however incredible it may seem, it is a fact. 
Unfortunately a good direct voice medium is an 
extremely rare personage. I think there are not 
above half a dozen in Great Britain to-day. 

(14) Q. Is the "direct voice" more satisfac- 
tory than materialisation? 

A. Yes, from the point of view of obtaining 
messages. Materialisation phenomena require 
such a large expenditure of psychic energy that 
the quantity of this kind of phenomena is strict- 
ly limited at any given seance even with the 
best mediums. In the case of the "direct voice," 
however, the amount of psychic energy required 
seems to be very much smaller, with the conse- 
quence that a corresponding increase in the mag- 
nitude of results is obtained. 

(15) Q. Is it dangerous for people who are 
not in good health to sit in seances? 

A. Yes. The sitters supply most of the energy 
required for the manifestations and this energy 
is taken in some unknown form from their 
bodies. If a person is in poor health the drain 
of vital energy may be disastrous. 

(16) Q. Has the holding of so many seances 
in any way affected the health of Miss Goli- 
gher? 

A. No. But great care was taken to see that 



148 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

she did not sit too often — never, except in very 
special cases, more than once a week. 

(17) Q. What do you think of the future in 
store for psychic research? 

A. I think it will have a great future. All in- 
dications point 'that way. But there will have 
to be organised effort and not merely the spo- 
radic experiments of a few. The recent war, as 
one of its few welcome by-products, seems to 
have opened the eyes of a great many people to 
the importance of the subject, and the interest 
thus created is not likely to lapse. For, in the 
last analysis, psychic research and psychic re- 
search only is likely to determine in any definite 
way whether man does or does not continue to 
exist after physical death. 

(18) Q. Have you found phenomena of the 
physical order so rare as most people think they 
are? 

A. No. Of course, mediumship such as Miss 
Goligher's is rare. But I know several other 
persons who can obtain movements without con- 
tact, and I am confident that if I had the time 
to give to them and they had the time to sit 
regularly, good non-contact phenomena would 
eventually be obtained in their cases. As it is, 
I have obtained some data from experiments 
I have carried out with them. 

(19) Q. How would you recommend an ex- 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 149 

perimenter desirous of undertaking psychic re- 
search to proceed? 

A. I think it would be well he should confine 
his attention to one small branch of the subject. 
The subject is already so vast that no man can 
tackle it all. Time should not be wasted in 
eternally seeking to verify the actuality of the 
phenomena. When the experimenter has satis- 
fied himself that the phenomena with which he 
is dealing are genuine he should not seek to sat- 
isfy all the world, for that is impossible. He 
should go ahead and try to discover the mechan- 
ism of the phenomena and the laws regulating 
them. Psychic phenomena are quite as real as 
any other and the man who nowadays denies 
their occurrence on a priori grounds is not worth 
wasting time upon. 

(20) Q. Should not the fact that light affects 
the magnitude of physical phenomena give us 
some clue to the composition of the psychic struc- 
tures? 

A. Yes, but it is difficult to say how. I once 
experienced the effect of light on these struc- 
tures at the Goligher circle in a rather impres- 
sive way. The body and chair of one of the sit- 
ters was casting a shadow on a portion of the 
floor within the circle space. A rapping rod was 
"out" and was rapping on various parts of the 
floor. At my request it rapped on a portion of 
the floor where the light was strong and the en- 



150 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

suing sounds were muffled and dull. It then 
rapped a few inches further along the floor with- 
in the shadow of the chair and the resulting 
sounds were hard and strong. It rapped half 
a dozen times in the light and in the shadow 
alternately and the result was always as stated. 
It changed quickly from the light to the shadow 
and just as quickly the loudness of the blows 
changed. As a matter of fact, the operators were 
actually giving me a simple demonstration on 
the effects of light upon their structures. 

The effect of light in the seance room is im- 
mediate. I think the peculiar form of matter 
of which the structures are partly composed is 
quickly and adversely affected. Light of long 
wave length like red light is least troublesome, 
which points to the fact that the matter of the 
psychic structures must exist in a delicate and 
unstable form. 

At the Goligher circle we once substituted 
mauve glass for the customary red glass of the 
illuminating lantern. We waited for quite a 
long time for phenomena. Eventually the seance 
table jerked about the floor two or three times. 
But that was all that occurred. The only light 
we could use with the certainty of getting good 
phenomena was the red. 

It is possible that light of some particular 
wave length in the visible spectrum may not be 
injurious to phenomena. All that can be said at 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 151 

present is that the longest wave length seems 
best and indeed the only possible. Nevertheless, 
there may be some wave length well np the spec- 
trum which, when nsed alone, and not in com- 
bination with other wave lengths on either side 
of it, may be permissible. But this is a matter 
for exact and painstaking experiment. I need 
not enlarge on the advantages that would ac- 
crue if a type of radiation could be found which 
would strongly illuminate the seance room and 
at the same time not be hurtful to phenomena. 
Only the most powerful mediums have been able 
to produce strong physical phenomena in day- 
light and even then the period of such phenom- 
ena was of the briefest. Materialisation of the 
full form has, I understand, only been accom- 
plished in daylight on one or two occasions and 
then only after prolonged sitting under the most 
suitable conditions with a strong medium of 
this class. 

(21) Q. Is photography likely to play an im- 
portant part in psychic research of the future? 

A. I am inclined to think so. Indeed, I think 
that we may look for the chief advance along 
this line. There seems to be no doubt that by 
the aid of a certain peculiar type of mediumship, 
psychic "extras" can be made to appear on the 
ordinary photographic plate — these "extras" be- 
ing in many cases pictures of deceased relatives 
or friends of the sitters. Unfortunately, this 



152 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

class of result is very susceptible to fraud. All 
sorts of faked effects can be produced on an 
ordinary photographic plate and the amateur 
has little chance of discriminating between the 
true and the false. Nevertheless, there is evi- 
dence to show that genuine psychic "extras" are 
obtained when the proper quality of mediumship 
is present. The most convincing results are sel- 
dom made public. The facts of many cases have, 
however, been placed before me in confidence 
and I can only come to the conclusion, after 
thorough examination, that the "extras" are in- 
deed photographs of deceased people — pictures 
impressed on the plate by means we know noth- 
ing about at present. Our ignorance of the 
method is of little relative importance. The 
levitation of a table was as mysterious to me as 
the production of photographic "extras" before 
I took up the investigation. What is required is 
continued investigation with the object of un- 
ravelling the laws — experiment and more ex- 
periment. Things are incredible only when we 
cannot understand how they are done. It is one 
of my objects in publishing the results of my 
researches into psychic phenomena to induce 
others to take a scientific interest in these sub- 
jects. 

There is a kind of psychic photography besides 
that in which "extras" are obtained on the plate. 
I mean that in which flashlight exposures are 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 153 

made of processes in connection witH physical 
phenomena, such as levitation or materialisa- 
tion. These photographs have of necessity to be 
taken by flashlight because the phenomena of 
this class cannot be obtained in any but dim 
light. The photograph of the levitating struc- 
ture described in B.P.P., Experiment 87, was of 
this kind. 

The effect on the medium of the flashlight is al- 
ways severe. After the flash by means of which 
we succeeded in obtaining the above picture, 
Miss Goligher trembled violently for ten min- 
utes or more. Her arms and legs kept jerking 
spasmodically and her body every now and then 
moved involuntarily. But in a quarter of an 
hour she was quite normal again. It is not to be 
wondered at that the effect of flashlight is se- 
vere on a physical medium when a psychic struc- 
ture emanating from her body is "out" in the 
stance room. The reader who has carefully fol- 
lowed my experimental work will understand 
that the structure is built up of matter from the 
medium's body and that it is really a part of her 
organism in a very unstable state. It is acutely 
sensitive to practically all light, except that at 
the bottom end of the spectrum, and in fact, can- 
not exist in any light except this. Imagine then 
the devastating effect of the magnesium flash 
upon this delicate structure. No wonder the 



154 [EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

medium trembles violently and is upset for some 
little time! 

A few mediums of the past have apparently 
been able to withstand the effects of the magne- 
sium light fairly well. At least no untoward 
results were reported. But I am satisfied that 
its use is rather risky for the medium and that 
it should only be employed after careful thought 
and preparation and in conjunction with the 
desires of the operators. For, whether the 
reader looks upon the operators as the spirit be- 
ings they claim to be, or as sub-conscious nuclei 
belonging to the medium or sitters, it is certain 
they are in charge of and produce the phenom- 
ena, and that, therefore, they may be trusted 
to know more about the dangers incurred by the 
medium than the experimenter. Miss Goligher 
is a young woman and possibly her bodily func- 
tions are not yet fully developed, with the conse- 
quence that exposure to flashlight during the 
occurrence of phenomena would be specially in- 
jurious to her. At any rate the operators were 
always careful that nothing should be done 
which would in any way be likely to harm her. 
They seemed anxious that photographs of the 
levitated table and of other psychic phenomena 
should be secured and we held several sittings 
for the purpose. But they always demanded 
that a trial of the flashlight should first be made 
with the object, apparently, of discovering its 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 155 

likely effect on the psychic structures and the me- 
dium. Usually after that they simply refused 
to levitate the table again. They spelled out 
messages to the effect that if, while the table 
was levitated, the magnesium flash was used, the 
medium would probably be severely injured. It 
requires a large and powerful psychic structure 
to levitate a table, with corresponding drain 
upon the medium. The structure shown in the 
photograph (E.P.P., Experiment 87) did not re- 
quire nearly so much psychic energy and mate- 
rial from the medium's body, as the table was 
not levitated at the time. It was only a frame- 
work compared with the structure necessary dur- 
ing actual levitation. Yet the medium was se- 
verely affected by the flash. If a heavily ener- 
gised structure had been present, it is reason- 
able to suppose that the medium would have 
been proportionately affected and that really se- 
rious injury might have followed. The experi- 
menter into psychic phenomena of the physical 
order should always be careful of the health and 
well-being of his medium. He should remember 
that he is dealing with processes of the true na- 
ture of which he is completely ignorant and that 
any thoughtlessness on his part is likely to lead 
to unfortunate results. Moreover, much better 
experimental work can be done if the medium is 
treated considerately than if she is looked upon 
as an insensitive machine. I think that much of 



156 EXPERIMENT IH PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

the trouble in the past has arisen from want of 
consideration for their mediums on the part of 
experimenters. Psychic work should be a com- 
bined affair; the experimenter and the medium 
should form a partnership, as it were, with the 
object of obtaining the best results possible. 

There is no doubt that the operators at the 
Goligher circle were desirous that as much pho- 
tographic work should be done as was consist- 
ent with the health of the medium. But unfor- 
tunately, it was found that little such work could 
be accomplished owing to the reasons mentioned. 
The youth of the medium was, I think, the chief 
drawback. Five or six years hence it will prob- 
ably be found that she will not be so acutely sen- 
sitive to the magnesium flash as she now is and 
accordingly photographs of many phases of the 
phenomena, at present impossible, will be ob- 
tained. For my part I state plainly that in 
matters of this kind I would not go against the 
advice of the operating entities. I have had such 
intimate experience of the stance room and its 
manifestations that I have become systemati- 
cally careful of the well-being of the medium. 

While on the subject of the health of the me- 
dium I may mention that when the experiments 
were being carried out in which she temporarily 
lost 30, 40, and even 50 lb. in weight (see Ex- 
periments 19-23), there was abundant evidence 
that the strain upon her system was becoming 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 157 

severe. I felt that it was necessary to be careful 
and I would not proceed too far. The operators, 
however, were working in conjunction with me 
on that occasion and, accordingly, I felt the more 
confident. 

(22) Q. Is it the case, so far as your experi- 
ence goes, that mediums are hysterical or weak- 
minded? 

A. It is difficult to answer this by a direct 
affirmative or negative. Miss Goligher is an 
extremely practical and strong-minded young 
woman. She is not excitable but is placid and 
cheerful. As I have already mentioned, how- 
ever, her mediumship has never been pressed. 
What might happen if she were to sit three or 
four times a week in promiscuous circles, I 
would not like to say; but I think there can be 
little doubt that she would suffer. 

Some professional mediums are, I think, not 
exactly stable. A good many of them are ex- 
citable and given to exaggeration. A few are de- 
cidedly eccentric. I have never met one whom 
I would consider weak-minded, but I think, on 
the whole, their calling is not very suitable for 
them, either physically or mentally. 

(23) Q. Have you had experience of mental 
phenomena such as trance, clairvoyance, etc.? 

A. Yes. I have had considerable experience. 
Such phenomena do not, however, appeal to me 
so strongly as the physical. I expect it is a mat- 



158 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

ter of temperament and that I am unduly pre- 
judiced. I can never get rid of the feeling in 
the case of phenomena such as trance speaking, 
clairvoyance, clairaudience, automatic writing, 
planchette and Ouija board, etc., that the mind 
of the medium has far too much to do with the 
results. It is difficult to see how the mind of the 
medium can lift a table weighing 50 lb. clear of 
the floor when it is placed a couple of feet in 
front of her, but it is not at all difficult to pic- 
ture how her mind, in its sub-conscious aspect, 
may be responsible for the general inanities of 
trance speaking, or what passes nine times out 
of ten for clairvoyance. The reader should un- 
derstand that I do not decry the genuine nature 
of mental phenomena but that I am appalled 
at the difficulties of sifting them. There seems 
so little one can come to grips with. Of course 
phenomena of the mental class are much more 
common than those of the physical and that may 
account for our hearing so much about them. 
For one physical medium such as Miss Goligher 
there are a thousand so-called clairvoyants. I 
am not at all inclined to the opinion that it is by 
means of the mental phenomena that all doubt 
of the existence of a psychic realm will eventu- 
ally be removed. I think, rather, that this will 
be accomplished largely by the "direct voice" 
and psychic photography, which are both phases 
of physical phenomena, 



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 159 

Some people have grown accustomed to look 
upon physical phenomena with contempt, but I 
think their attitude is a mistaken one. 

(24) Q. Have the phenomena occurring with 
Miss Goligher shown any signs of changing in 
character? 

A. No. In essentials they are the same now 
as they were four years ago. Of course they are 
of greater magnitude, variety, and accuracy, but 
their type has not altered. We had hoped to 
obtain materialisations or the direct voice and 
a cabinet was erected for that purpose in the 
seance room. But nothing came of it. I am 
inclined to think that each medium possesses his 
or her own particular type of phenomena, and 
that it is seldom capable of varying or embracing 
other types, at least to any notable extent. 



CHAPTER VI 

CONTACT PHENOMENA 

I am now going to describe some experiments 
I have carried out with "contact" phenomena, 
i.e., those in which the hands of the sitters are 
in contact with the table throughout the seance. 
Hitherto, as the reader is aware, I have dealt 
only with phenomena in which there was no 
contact whatever between the table and the me- 
dium or sitters. 

Contact phenomena are quite common. Near- 
ly every family contains one member at least 
who is capable of producing them. Some peo- 
ple, it is true, can produce them more quickly 
and more violently than others. All that is nec- 
essary is that a few persons sit round a wooden 
table and place their hands lightly upon its sur- 
face. If the requisite mediumship be present 
(and the mediumship required is of quite a low 
order) the table will sooner or later shake, move 
about, tilt up and down, and make various other 
motions not apparently due to muscular pressure 
exerted by the sitters. Many thousands of people 
have had experience of phenomena of this kind. 

160 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 161 

These table movements with hands in contact 
may conceivably be produced in three ways: 

(1) The table may be consciously moved by 

muscular pressure from the sitters. 

(2) The table may be unconsciously moved by 

muscular pressure from the sitters. 

(3) The table may be moved without the aid of 

muscular action at all. 

The first tests I carried out were to see if (3) 
above was true, i.e., to see if sometimes the 
movements of the table with hands in contact 
were really not due to the action of muscular 
force exerted through the fingers upon the sur- 
face of the table. The person who is interested 
in spiritualistic phenomena will recognise at 
once that this is an extremely important matter. 
For if it can be shown that such table movements 
can be obtained without the direct aid of mus- 
cular action, then the messages received via the 
table must be delivered by something other than 
the simple process of mind acting on muscle and 
muscle on table. In short, there must be some 
unusual process going on, which at any rate is 
worthy of investigation. 

The following tests were not carried out with 
the Goligher circle but with a few other friends, 
one of whom happened to be a very strong me- 
dium of the "contact" order. They were carried 
out in my own house in a small laboratory I have 



162 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

fitted up for the purpose of psychic investiga- 
tion. 



Experiment. To see if movements of the table 
could be obtained not due to muscular pres- 
sure, and to make other observations on 
"contact" phenomena. 

The apparatus employed will be understood 
from an inspection of Figs. 27 and 28, which are 
from photographs of the table in position. 

Four flat rectangular pieces of wood are 
hinged to another rectangular shaped piece of 
wood screwed to the centre of the table. The 
four sitters place their fingers upon the hinged 
pieces under each of which is a pair of metal 
contacts in an electric bell circuit. Each pair of 
contacts is normally kept slightly separate by a 
piece of spiral spring fixed to the table. A chalk 
line is drawn across each hinged piece of wood 
three-quarters the distance from the outside. 
The hands of the sitters are kept beyond the 
chalk lines. The pressure on each piece of wood 
required to make the electric bell ring can be 
nicely adjusted from an ounce to a pound or so. 
From each corner of the table a cord proceeds 
to a circular spring balance reading to 50 lb., 
the latter being tied to an overhead beam. The 
cords are normally adjusted so that the table 
clears the floor by six inches or so. 




Fig. 27 




Fig. 28 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 163 

The weight of the table with apparatus was 
13% lb., as indicated by the spring balance. 

The electrical apparatus was so adjusted that 
it was impossible for any one of the 4 hinged 
wooden leaves to be pressed downwards with a 
greater pressure than y 2 lb. without causing the 
bell to ring. The maximum pressure that could 
be put upon the table without the bell ringing 
was therefore 2 lb. Even if the leaves were 
pressed down considerably within the chalk lines 
with a force of y 2 lb. the bell would still ring, 
but the sitters always had their fingers well out- 
side these lines. 

STANCE I 

Sitters: Mr. X (medium), Miss A, Mrs. B, 
Mrs. C. 

The table was first placed upon the floor (the 
suspending cords being disconnected). 

In about ten minutes after the opening of the 
seance, the table began to shuffle about the floor 
and in a little time lifted twice at Mrs. B's end. 
(Mr. X sat opposite Mrs. B). The bell did not 
ring. 

In about half an hour the movements became 
powerful. I then hung up the table from the 
overhead beam. 

I asked the operators to increase the table's 
weight. 

Fully half a dozen times the pointer on the 



164 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

spring balance went round to 26 lb. without the 
bell ringing. The table's weight being 13% lb. 
and the maximum downward force it was pos- 
sible to put on the table under the conditions 
mentioned being 2 lb., we have the table's 
weight increased at least by 26 — 15% = 10%' 
lb. by means not due to normal muscular pres- 
sure. 

Later on the pointer on the spring balance 
moved slowly round to 32 lb. and then twice to 
34 lb., and finally near the end of the sitting to 
41 lb. This last was equivalent to a downward 
force applied to the table of 41 - — 15% = 25% 
lb. 

The increased weight was not put upon the 
table unexpectedly or haphazardly but only at 
such times as I made the definite request to the 
operators. Furthermore the increase of weight 
was a gradual process, occupying from three to 
five seconds before the maximum value was at- 
tained. Sometimes the operators were not suc- 
cessful in reaching the value hoped for, and on 
these occasions the weight was removed from 
the table and other efforts made, as was evi- 
denced by the pointer again moving gradually 
round the dial of the spring balance. The fingers 
of the sitters were only lightly touching the 
hinged leaves at the proper place and many con- 
trol tests showed that it was quite impossible to 
press down in the ordinary way with a total 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 165 

force exceeding a couple of pounds without caus- 
ing the bell to ring. 

It is noteworthy that, as in non-contact phe- 
nomena, the most powerful results were often 
obtained towards the close of the seance. 

As a further test the operators were asked to 
remove some weight from the table. On the re- 
quest being made, the pointer on the balance be- 
gan to move backwards towards the zero mark. 
Several times the table was lightened by about 
7 lb. and on one occasion the pointer on the bal- 
ance went right back to zero, showing that the 
whole of the table's weight had been removed. 
With the fingers of the experimenters on the ap- 
paratus as described, it is unnecessary to say 
that it was quite impossible to accomplish this 
feat by either conscious or unconscious pressure 
from the hands or fingers. 

The above tests show, as was sufficiently evi- 
dent already to those familiar with this class of 
phenomena, that the movements of the table 
when there is true psychic action upon it are not 
due to muscular pressure (at any rate in the or- 
dinary sense) and that their cause must be 
looked for elsewhere. 

Further incidents. — During the time the table 
was standing upon the floor and before it was 
suspended from the ceiling, I stood over it and 
raised it a little. At this time it was under 
strong psychic action ,and I was surprised to find 



166 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

that what appeared to be more or less rigid bars 
were connecting it low clown on the legs to the 
medium. The kind of rigidity was exactly the 
same to the sense of feeling as the rigidity ex- 
perienced at the Goligher circle with non-con- 
tact phenomena. Especially did the table resist 
being turned in a horizontal plane, or of being 
pulled or pushed horizontally. But if I pulled 
or pushed too hard the psychic link (whatever 
its nature) gave way and I had to wait for some 
minutes before it could be established again. 
Many times at this and subsequent stances did 
I, with my muscular sense, try to locate these 
psychic connecting links, and to my surprise, I 
always distinctly felt them present when the 
psychic action was at all strong. With my years 
of experience at the Goligher circle I could make 
no mistake. The type of connecting link, in its 
main characteristics, was the same both for con- 
tact and for non-contact phenomena. At a con- 
tact circle held with entirely different sitters 
and in a town over 50 miles from Belfast I sub- 
sequently found that these psychic bars were also 
present and that they seemed to extend from 
the leg of the table low down, to the ankle of the 
medium, who, in this case, said that he felt dur- 
ing the whole seance a cold sensation on the skin 
near one of his ankles, this peculiar feeling ex- 
tending over a space about the size of half-a- 
crown. He said the spot on his skin felt just as 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 167 

though it had been rubbed with menthol. The 
sensation went away as soon as the sitting was 
over. 

It therefore seems that "contact" and "non- 
contact" table phenomena are not so dissimilar 
in their main processes as might be supposed. 

The operators evidently found it easier to in- 
crease the table's weight than to decrease it; 
they seemed able to accomplish the former as 
often as I wished once the seance was well under 
way, but they were not always successful with 
the latter and appeared only to succeed after 
considerable trouble. 

Sometimes when the pointer on the balance 
had successfully moved round to 30 lb. or so 
without the bell ringing it remained there for 
some seconds, and then as it gradually returned 
to its normal position of 13 ^ lb. or thereabouts, 
the bell gave a ring when it was about half way 
back. This often happened. The bell did not 
ring when the downward pressure was being 
applied, but strange to say, sometimes gave short 
sharp rings while the pressure was being re- 
moved. 

Sometimes while we were not doing anything 
in particular, the bell started ringing — long con- 
tinuous rings and also short sharp ones. All the 
sitters declared they were not ringing it. I asked 
the operators if they were responsible, when im- 
mediately it was rung long and repeatedly as 



168 EXPEKIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

though in affirmation. Also, the usual code was 
employed, three rings for "Yes," one for "No," 
and two for "Doubtful." Of course there was no 
direct evidence that the operators were really 
ringing the bell, as they said they were, because 
a very slight push from the finger of any of the 
sitters would suffice to do this. The sitters, 
however, declared most emphatically they were 
not consciously doing it, 

STANCE II 

Sitters:* Mr. X (medium) 1 , Miss A, Mr& C, 
Mr. F. 

As in Seance I, the table with itg electrical 
contact apparatus was suspended from a spring 
balance tied to a beam in the ceiling. The sit- 
ters sat round it and rested their fingers on the 
hinged leaves outside the chalk lines. A total 
downward force exceeding 2 lb. was sufficient 
to cause electrical contact and thus to ring the 
bell. 

The operators many times increased the weight 
of the table without causing the bell to ring. 
The maximum pull down was 34 lb. (as regis- 
tered on the spring balance) which is equivalent 
to lSy 2 lb. extra weight, exclusive of weight of 
table. The operators tried many times before 
the 34 lb. mark was reached. The average addi- 
tional weight put upon the table during the vari- 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 169 

ous attempts was about 12 or 13 IE The ab- 
sence of Mrs. B seemed to affect the magnitude 
of phenomena at this sitting. 

I placed the platform weighing machine beside 
the table, put a drawing-board upon it and a 
chair upon the board. Mr. X then sat upon the 
chair and along with the other sitters placed his 
fingers lightly on the contact apparatus. 

Weight of Mr. X + chair + board = 163 lb. 

I moved the rider along the lever of the weigh- 
ing machine so that the lever would balance at 
a total weight of 155% lb. 

I asked the operators to increase the weight of 
the table in the usual way. 

I watched the circular spring balance above 
the table and I found that when it nearly regis- 
tered 26 lb. (bell not ringing), the lever of the 
weighing machine, which was previously hard 
up against the top stop, fell to the bottom stop. 
The weight of the table had been increased by 
(at least) 26 — 15% — 10y 2 lb. 

Mr. X's weight had been reduced by 

163 lb. — 155% lb. = 7% lb. 
Other similar experiments showed conclusively 
that each time the table's weight was psychically 
increased, the medium's weight was reduced, but 
there did not seem to be any fixed relation be- 
tween increase of table's weight and reduction 
in Mr. X's weight. 

Non-contact movements.*—! had known all the 



170 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

time that Mr. X was the chief medium but I 
was also under the impression that Mrs. B sup- 
plied some of the mediumship. That Mr. X was 
the chief medium was however conclusively 
proved at this seance. For non-contact move- 
ments occurred due to him. Towards the con- 
clusion of the seance he held the fingers of one 
hand about two inches above his hinged leaf and 
on request the operators rang the bell easily and 
often. The electric flash between the contacts 
under Mr. X's hinged leaf, as the bell was rung, 
established the fact that the phenomenon was due 
to him. It seemed to me that a psychic prolonga- 
tion of his fingers was in this instance responsi- 
ble for the phenomenon. 

stance ni 

Sitters: Mr. X (medium), Miss A, Mrs. B, 
Mrs. 0. 

The table was suspended from the ceiling by 
cords and the electrical contact apparatus used 
as before. Mr. X sat on the weighing machine. 
I asked the operators to increase the weight of 
the table. In the early part of the seance they 
seemed to experience difficulty in doing this, but 
towards the end they accomplished it quite eas- 
ily, the bell not ringing. 

There was some difficulty in getting the de- 
creased weight of Mr. X corresponding to the 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 17i 

increased weight of table ; in fact there did not 
seem to be any relation between the two. This 
much, however, can be said, that Mr. X's weight 
always decreased when the table's weight in- 
creased. The following are some readings: 

Loss of weight Increased weight 

of Mr. X of table 

4 lb. 8 lb. 

7 lb. 12 lb. 

7 lb. 11 lb. 

The last two are nearly correct as I set the rider 
at a certain mark on the lever, and placing one 
hand on the lever and the other on the pointer 
of the balance, noted exactly the mark attained 
by the pointer when the lever fell. 

Mrs. B then sat on the weighing machine and 
Mr. X took her place (which was directly op- 
posite). I balanced her weight and then set back 
the rider along the lever. With a finger of one 
hand on the pointer of the balance and a finger 
of the other on the lever, I marked the exact 
point on the spring balance at which the lever 
of the weighing machine fell. The following 
is the reading: 



Loss of weight 


Increased weight 


of Mrs. B 


of table 


33^ lb. 


8 1b. 



There was, however, a difference at this seance 
between the results for Mrs. B and Mr. X. With 
Mrs. B the pointer on the spring balance often 



172 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

went almost completely back to normal and yet 
her weight remained considerably reduced. That 
is, though the increased weight had been re- 
moved from the table, Mrs. B's weight still re- 
mained reduced. Furthermore, the amount of 
reduction of her weight seemed variable. 

On one occasion, without asking for it, the 
pointer on the spring balance went back to zero, 
i.e., the weight of the table was decreased by an 
amount about equal to its own weight. 

On several occasions when the weight was in- 
creased by about 16 lb. the table was trembling 
violently. On these occasions the pointer of the 
spring balance was oscillating over a small arc 
at a great rate. 

STANCE IV 

Sitters: Mr. X (medium), Miss A, Mrs. B, 
Mrs. C. 

Table arrangements as before. Mr. X was sit- 
ting on the weighing machine. Further weight 
tests were made. The following are the results : 

Mr. X's weight always decreased when the 
weight of the table increased, and it also always 
diminished when the weight of the table de- 
creased; i.e., he experienced a reduction in 
weight in both cases. Furthermore, sometimes 
when there was apparently no action on the table 
at all, his weight was temporarily reduced a few 
pounds. 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 173 

On one occasion his weight was reduced 1 lb., 
and on another % lb., when the table's weight 
was decreased 4 or 5 lb. For an increase of 
weight of the table of 3 or 4 lb. Mr. X's weight 
diminished about 1% lb- It diminished 4 or 5 
lb. when there was an increase of from 8 to 10 
lb. in table's weight. 

It seems that there is a mnch less decrease in 
the medium's weight for a reduction in the 
table's weight than for a corresponding increase 
in the table's weight. 

Near the end of the seance the bell rang once 
when nobody was within a foot of the table. 
Also, when the sitters sat round the table with- 
out touching it, the table several times oscillated 
about, the movement being a psychic non-contact 
one. 

Mrs. B sat with her hands on her knees and the 
remaining three sitters had their hands on the 
contact apparatus. This arrangement seemed 
immediately to increase the magnitude of psy- 
chic results on table. 

On those occasions when the table was pulled 
down (its weight increased) and pushed up (its 
weight decreased) the pull or push seemed to be 
quite centrally applied to the table, for there was 
no twisting movement. The resultant of the pull 
or push must, therefore, be practically in line 
with the centre of the table. 

Several times after the table's weight had been 



174 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

increased from 8 to 12 lb. and when the pointer 
on the spring balance had returned to normal 
(i.e., no pressure on table) Mr. X's weight did 
not simultaneously come back to normal, but 
remained several pounds reduced for a consid- 
erable time. 

STANCE V 

Sitters: Mr. X (medium), Miss A, Mrs. B, 
Mrs. C. 

All the under-surf ace and legs of the table were 
covered with turpentine soot, in order to see if 
any marks would be left due to a psychic struc- 
ture gripping the wood of the table. One such 
mark was found, but it requires verification. 
The sitting was chiefly remarkable for a mes- 
sage which was laboriously spelled out, the table 
turning in the air when the correct letter of the 
alphabet was reached (I called out the letters). 
The following was the message: 

"Clean table, tie hands and feet of sitters to 
their chairs and sit nine inches back from the 
table." 

STANCE VI 

Sitters: Mr. X (medium), Miss A, Mrs. B, 
Mrs. 0. 

I tied the sitters' legs together at the ankles 
with strong cord. At first I also tied each sit- 



CONTACT PHENOMENA 175 

ter's own hands together, but later altered this 
arrangement and tied each sitter's hands to his 
neighbour's on either side of him, thinking this 
procedure would give better results. The circle 
sat at a distance of a foot or so from the table 
which was suspended in the usual way. Thus 
no one was touching the table with any part of 
his body. Nevertheless the table commenced to 
twist and tilt and oscillate about. The move- 
ments were not very strong but they were gen- 
uine psychic movements of the non-contact order. 
The table moved by jerks, not with soft glid- 
ing motions as one might expect, but as though 
it were gripped somewhere and actually shoved 
about — the exact type of movements as at the 
Goligher circle, although on a much smaller 
scale. 

After some time the sitters placed their hands 
on the contact apparatus when immediately the 
movements became very powerful. The table's 
weight decreased 10 lb. and later on 20 lb. 
without the bell ringing. 

The phenomena without contact seemed to be 
much of the same type as those with contact, 
only, as I have said, on a much smaller scale. 
Hence it seems that the placing of the hands on 
the table simply makes the production of the phe- 
nomena more easy but does not alter its main 
characteristics. 



176 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 
GENERAL 

The chief outstanding points in connection 
with these tests on "contact" phenomena are the 
following : 

(1) the increases and decreases of weight of 
the table are not due to the muscular action of 
the medium or sitters. 

(2) the medium or mediums (there may be 
more than one in this sort of circle) lose weight 
while the table is being psychically acted upon. 

(3) the medium's loss of weight does not en- 
dure only during the time the table is being act- 
ed upon, but may last for some time after psy- 
chic action has ceased. 

(4) there is strong evidence of a psychic arm 
or link connecting the legs of the medium with 
the legs of the table. The characteristics of this 
arm appear similar to that of the arm which 
levitates the table in "non-contact" phenomena 
of the Goligher type. 

(5) since in this case the "contact" phenom- 
ena changed into weak phenomena of the "non- 
contact" type, it is reasonable to suppose that 
the two types have features in common. 

(6) for heavy movements of the whole table 
the psychic arm would appear to issue from the 
lower part ol the legs of the medium; but psy- 
chic prolongations can also issue from the fin- 
gers, as witness the case in which the electric 




CONTACT PHENOMENA 177 

bell rang when the medium held his fingers sev- 
eral inches above the contact apparatus. As a 
matter of fact I find that these psychic struc- 
tures almost invariably issue from the extremi- 
ties of the medium's body either in the vicinity 
of hands or feet. It was so with Miss Goligher 
and would appear to be the same with Mr. X. 



CHAPTER VII 

DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 

I am now going to describe some experiments 
I carried out on "direct voice" phenomena, 
which phenomena occurred during several se- 
ances held in my own house. As the reader is 
no doubt aware, the "direct voice" is a rather 
rare form of psychic phenomenon. Voices, not 
apparently the voice of the medium or of any of 
the sitters, speak from the air within or around 
the circle. They speak through thin metal cones 
or "trumpets" which seemingly float about in the 
air under psychic support, their function being 
to concentrate the voice sounds and thus make 
them more audible than they otherwise would 
be. I refer the reader who desires to obtain a 
good general idea of this type of mediumship 
to the late Vice-Admiral Moore's book, "The 
Voices." 

; The medium who was responsible for the voice 
phenomena occurring at the seances held in my 
house was Mrs. Z, a well-known public psy- 
chic. There has been much controversy over 
this woman's mediumship. Her seances, in or- 

178 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 179 

der to produce any result worth mentioning, 
have to be held in absolute darkness, which, 
however, I believe, is generally true of all sit- 
tings for the "direct voice" with all mediums. 
Hence there is considerable scope for fraud if 
the medium be a fraudulent one. 

Mrs. Z has been going up and down the 
country for a number of years, giving hundreds 
of seances. I do not think anything definite has 
ever been discovered during this period of time 
which points conclusively to fraud. I have heard 
the explanations of many people who claim to 
describe how her phenomena are produced fraud- 
ulently, but when these explanations are criti- 
cally examined they are found to be of little 
value. 

The reader, however, must understand that 
the experiments I carried out with this medium 
were done under the following limitations : 

(1) They were nearly all carried out in com- 

plete darkness. 

(2) The medium was a public one. 

I carried out the tests for my own satisfaction 
and did not think of publishing them; but on 
consideration, I have come to the conclusion that 
they should be put on record, if for no other 
reason than that the results may be compared 
hereafter with the vast quantities of experimen- 
tal work that will have to be done if we are ever 
to get at the bottom of this psychic question. 



180 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

It must be distinctly understood by the reader 
that I do not guarantee the genuineness of the 
results given below. I did everything I could 
to prevent fraud; but in an absolutely dark se- 
ance room it is obviously impossible to ensure 
complete prevention. The reader must draw his 
own conclusions, or wait till the results obtained 
are compared with similar results from other 
"direct voice" mediums. 

The sittings were held in my own house in 
a small laboratory I have fitted up for psy- 
chic work. The sitters were all my personal 
friends specially invited to the seances by my- 
self. 

Fig. 29 shows (in connection with other ap- 
paratus) a photograph of the two trumpets used. 
Each of them was made in two sections of thin 
tinned iron, which fitted tightly together tele- 
scopically. The particulars are as follows : 

No. 1, weight - 1 lb. 2 oz. 

No. 2, weight 1 lb. 

Length of each 34 inches 

Apertures Z A inch and 4 inch diameter 

STANCE I 

Date— Saturday, 20th April, 1918. 
Time 8.00-9.30 p. m. 

Weights of medium and sitters just before and 
just after the seance: 




Fig. 29. 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 181 

Weights just before Weights just after 

stance — pounds seance — pounds 

Mrs. Z (medium) 279% 279^ 

Mrs. A 1393^ 139^ 

Mr. X 160M 158^ 

Mr. R 189 1883^ 

Mrs. Q 1433^ 143 

Mr. M 177^ 177^ 

Mrs. B 160 159M 

The above weights include weight of chair and 
drawing-board (13% lb.). 

It will be noted that there was an almost gen- 
eral reduction in weight after the seance, but 
that the medium lost only a quarter of a pound. 

The reader will be interested to hear that at 
a circle held about a year previously with Mrs. 
Z, one of the voices, just before the breakup 
of the seance, gratuitously informed us that 
if we were to weigh the medium at the conclu- 
sion, we would find that she had lost 10 or more 
pounds due to the phenomena occurring during 
the evening. There is no doubt that the medium 
believed this herself; at any rate she mentioned 
it several times in the course of conversation. 
But it is all rubbish. The medium loses perma- 
nently very little weight ; less, indeed, than some 
of the sitters. And in this respect she is in line 
with all other mediums I have known. 

I think the origin of the medium's belief that 
she lost 10 or more pounds in weight during one 
of her circles came about as follows : Some years 
ago in America telekinetic phenomena occurred 
through her; as a matter of fact a piano is said 



182 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

to have moved across the room. She was weighed 
while this was happening and it was found that 
she lost a good many pounds. The medium im- 
mediately came to the rash conclusion that this 
loss of weight was permanent and she has since 
so informed all and sundry. Of course, the loss 
(supposing it to have taken place) was merely 
temporary and lasted only during the time the 
phenomenon was occurring. The reader who has 
followed my. experiments will know that these 
temporary fluctuations of weight seemingly oc- 
cur during all phenomena of the telekinetic 
order. 

But what are we to think of the voice (quite 
evidently a "direct" voice and not the voice of 
the medium either in or out of trance) which 
definitely declared that the medium permanently 
lost a great many pounds in weight? Did the 
voice belong to a sub-conscious part of Mrs. Z's 
ego masquerading as an independent entity, or 
did it really belong to an independent spirit? 
If the latter was the case, why did the spirit 
make incorrect statements in so fundamental a 
matter? If an independent spirit was speaking 
he must be very like unscientific people here 
who, in order to impress others, are not very 
careful or exact in their statements. 

Returning to my experiments, the two trum- 
pets were placed upright on the floor within the 
circle. The red light (obtained from a gas jet 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 183 

enclosed in a large lantern having a sliding red 
glass front) was turned on full and the lantern 
was placed on a table at the end of the room 
farthest from the medium. Nothing happened 
for about a quarter of an hour. Then there were 
some raps on the floor and on the trumpets. In 
reply to questions the operators said (by raps) 
that the light was too strong. I went over to the 
lantern and turned the gas half down. A feeble 
voice, apparently emanating from near the ceil- 
ing within the circle space, was then heard say- 
ing, "Sing something." Soon the swish of what 
might have been the trumpets flying about in the 
air was heard (they could not, however, be seen) . 
The voice then said, "Turn the light round," i.e., 
the light was to be turned round so that it faced 
the wall, away from the circle and the medium. 
This voice is from the control, who is sup- 
posed to be a daughter of the medium who died 
many years ago and who now acts as chief guide 
or control at her mother's circles. Her voice is 
very much in evidence at all Mrs. Z's circles 
and it has a peculiar timbre not easily mistak- 
able. The light was turned round as directed, 
which had the effect of making the room prac- 
tically dark. There were then heard some face- 
tious remarks from the control with regard to the 
experimental apparatus in the room and various 
voices spoke which gave names but no evidence 
of identity. 



184 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

What I wished, however, was to see if the 
trumpets were really moving about in the air, 
as they seemed to be doing from the various 
directions in which the voices were speaking 
and from the peculiar way in which the trum- 
pets apparently touched sitters in different parts 
of the circle. But it was now evident that 
only the feeblest light was possible with this me- 
dium. So I inserted a yellow screen in front of 
the red glass of the lantern which I again 
turned round facing the medium. (It is to be 
remembered that the lantern was on a table 
right outside the circle of sitters and perhaps 
seven feet distant from the medium.) The 
screen had the effect of practically extinguish- 
ing the light, there only remaining the dullest 
glow visible just in front of the lantern. Mr. 
M, who was holding the left hand of the me- 
dium, then said that he could see the trumpets 
moving in front of the lamp. I went over beside 
him and saw shadows crossing and re-crossing 
the dull glow produced by the light. These shad- 
ows seemed to be due to the trumpets, for their 
outlines were visible crossing both in a vertical 
position (sometimes small end up and sometimes 
large end) and in an inclined position. 

At the conclusion of the seance when the lights 
were turned up, a fresh mark was found on the 
plaster of the ceiling of the room which would 
appear to have been made by the end of a trum- 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 185 

pet. This mark was more than ten feet distant 
from the chair on which the medium w T as sitting. 
After the medium had departed we tried if it was 
possible to make such a mark fraudulently, even 
with the aid of both trumpets, but nobody could 
see how this was possible. (The small ends of 
the trumpets were of practically the same diam- 
eter and would not telescope into each other.) 
I may say also that I had heard voices speaking 
from the vicinity in which the mark was dis- 
covered. 

During the whole stance Mr. M had hold of 
the medium's left hand. Mrs. A had her right 
hand, but this was occasionally free for a few 
seconds. 

This stance showed that practically no phe- 
nomena could be obtained with this medium even 
in the feeblest of light. The trumpets could not 
even be made to move in the air round the room 
except in the dullest of dull glows. With Miss 
Goligher's mediumship the trumpets floated 
about in strong red light, and could be examined 
in detail (seeE.P.P.). 

STANCE n 

Date— Sunday, 21st April, 1918. 
Time 7.30-9.15 p. m. 

Weights of medium and sitters just before 
and just after the seance : 



186 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

Weights just before Weights Just after 

stance — pounds seance — pouDds 

Mrs. Z (medium). 2823^ 282M 

Mr. R 188% 1883^ 

Mr. M jl763^ 176 

Mrs. S 146 14414 

Mrs. T 136% 136^ 

Mrs. A 141K 141 

Mrs.Q... 145J4 145 



The above weights include weight of chair and 
drawing-board (15% lb.). (The chair used at 
these seances was not always the same.) 

Experiment to find the effect on the medium's 
weight while a voice was speaking. 

The medium sat on a chair which rested upon 
a drawing-board placed on the platform of a 
weighing machine. The medium is a heavy wom- 
an and she found it difficult to make herself com- 
fortable on the machine, yet she sat upon it for 
nearly an hour. I exactly balanced her weight 
so that the lever of the machine was just quiv- 
ering between the stops. The machine just bal- 
anced at 282% lb. The two trumpets were 
placed upright on the floor within the circle. 
The medium sat with her hands on her knees. 
The lights were turned completely out and the 
seance commenced. I stood at the back of the 
machine with my right hand upon the lever, so 
that I was sensible of its slightest movement. 
With my left hand I felt the back of the medium 
from time to time. 

Nothing happened for a quarter of an hour or 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 187 

so. Then the lever of the machine fell lightly on 
the bottom stop, indicating that the medium's 
weight was decreasing. Very carefully I moved 
the rider back along the lever and obtained a 
new balance. Although it was dark this was 
quite easily accomplished by my sense of touch. 
The medium's original weight had balanced at 
282% lb., so that the rider had been at the 2% 
lb. mark beyond zero on the scale. I found that 
by moving the rider almost exactly to zero that 
the lever just balanced again. The decrease in 
the medium's weight was, therefore, within an 
ounce of 2% lb. Immediately after I had surely 
obtained the new balance, the control's voice, is- 
suing apparently from somewhere near the roof 
within the circle, cried out, "Weigh me," and a 
trumpet dropped with a crash to the floor within 
the circle. The medium's weight then immedi- 
ately returned to the original value. 

About a quarter of an hour later the same 
thing happened. The medium's weight sudden- 
ly decreased almost exactly 2% lb., the control's 
voice called out from near the ceiling, "Weigh 
me," a trumpet dropped with a crash to the floor, 
and the medium's weight immediately returned 
to normal. 

The whole experiment was carried out in abso- 
lute darkness, only the senses of touch and hear- 
ing being of any use to the experimenter. What 
then are the chances that the decrease in the 



188 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

medium's weight was due to genuine psychic 
action and not to fraud? 

(a) With the exception of the occasion when 

her weight decreased as described, there 
was absolutely no action on the weighing 
machine. The lever was very delicately 
balanced and I could note, by my sense of 
touch, if it moved the smallest amount. I 
am perfectly satisfied in my own mind 
that the medium, far from moving off the 
machine, or touching or pushing on or 
lifting extraneous bodies, hardly moved a 
muscle all the time she was sitting on the 
machine (possible exceptions, of course, 
being during the two periods of decreased 
weight). If she had done any of these 
things the delicately poised lever would 
have given it away. Moreover, the me- 
dium is a large heavy woman and any 
movements she would make, especially 
from the small platform of a weighing 
machine seven inches above the floor, 
would most likely be of a clumsy nature. 
Therefore, any fraud attempted was only 
during the periods of decreased weight. 

(b) If the medium lifted a trumpet with a hand 

or foot and held it out in the air, the 
weighing machine would register increase 
of weight equal to weight of trumpet. The 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 18d 

medium's weight, however, decreased on 
both occasions. 

(c) If the medium put out a hand, grasped the 

end of a trumpet and pressed the other 
end of the trumpet on the floor, her weight 
would decrease. In order, however, to 
make the decrease almost exactly 2% lb. 
on two separate occasions, she would need 
to have a very nice sense of touch. 

(d) If acting fraudulently the medium, during 

the period of the fraud, must have been 
doing something with the trumpet, for it 
crashed on the floor as soon as the voice 
spoke, and then immediately she regained 
her lost weight. It is certain she did not 
lift the trumpet clear of the floor at any 
time, for at no period was there the slight- 
est increase in her weight. Yet the voice 
spoke from near the ceiling. If the trum- 
pet had been pressed on the ceiling by the 
medium she would have gained weight, 
and during the time she was lifting it 
from floor to the ceiling she would have 
also gained weight. 
Taking it on the whole I am inclined to think 
the phenomenon was genuine and that the de- 
crease in weight of 2y 2 lb. was due to psychic 
action. 

As practically no phenomena were forthcom- 
ing while the medium was sitting on the weigh- 



190 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

ing machine (with the exception of those noted) 
I finally removed the machine and the medium 
sat on a chair placed on the floor. The medium 
said that the iron of the machine was hindering 
the production of phenomena. Voices in fair 
number then spoke, but nothing in the way of 
tests of identity was given. 

I asked the control if during the experiment I 
had been weighing her or the trumpet. She did 
not seem to know, for she told me to "find out" 
for myself. 

STANCE III 

Date— Saturday, 27th April, 1918. 
Time 8.00-9.30 p. m. 

Weights of medium and sitters just before 
and just after the seance : 

Weights just before Weights just after 

seance — pounds stance — pounds 

Mrs. Z (medium) 2S6 2853^ 

Mrs. A 143 142^ 

Mr. M 1S23^ 1823^ 

Mr. U 15313 153H 

Mr. W 15SJ^ 158}/S 

Mrs. S 146% 1463^ 

Mrs. T 13SH 13SM 

The above weights include the weight of chair 
and drawing-board (18% lb.). 

Experiment to determine if the "direct voice" 
could be registered on a phonograph. 

In order that the medium might not be able 
to move the trumpets with her feet, I devised an 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 191 

electrical apparatus which effectually prevented 
this, A photograph of it is shown (fig. 29). It 
consists of a couple of flat boards hinged at their 
back ends to an un^er board which is screwed 
to the floor. An electrical contact device and 
springs are so arranged to each that normally 
the contacts are closed and an electric bell in the 
circuit rings. If a person sits on a chair and 
places a foot on each of the flat hinged boards 
the contacts are opened, due to the weight, and 
the bell ceases to ring. Each foot-rest operates 
independently. Between the two foot-rests is a 
vertical board sufficiently high to prevent one 
foot from being placed across both rests simul- 
taneously. Many control tests showed that 
neither foot could be raised for an instant with- 
out the bell ringing. 

When Mrs. Z came into the seance room and 
saw the foot electrical apparatus she seemed 
annoyed and nervous (I had not previously told 
her of it) . She said I should have made arrange- 
ments with her guides, i.e., spirit controls, be- 
fore it was used. It took a lot of coaxing be- 
fore she would consent to sit on a chair above 
the apparatus and put her feet on it. 

A friend of mine, Mr. Stoupe, sat on her left 
and Mrs. Mills on her right throughout the whole 
seance. The medium placed a hand on each 
knee. A minute or two after the light was put 
out each of these sitters linked the little finger 



192 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

of each of the medium's hands with their own 
hands, and I have their word that except dur- 
ing the times the light was subsequently lit (it 
was lit twice) they held tightly and that the me- 
dium's hands were never free. On the occasions 
upon which the light was temporarily lit I exam- 
ined the situation and found each of the me- 
dium's hands properly gripped; in fact they 
were gripped so tightly that it was necessary, 
during the few minutes the light was on, to re- 
lax hands temporarily in order to give relief to 
the fingers of medium and sitters which had 
become cramped. But before the light was again 
extinguished the medium's hands were again 
tightly held. 

As I have said, Mrs. Z, although obviously 
nervous and ill at ease, eventually submitted 
to all the test conditions. The trumpets were 
placed upright on the floor within the circle 
and the light was extinguished. 

Within four minutes from the commencement 
the control's voice was heard from the air within 
the circle. I was surprised at this quick start- 
ing of phenomena, as at the previous stances 
they had been much slower in getting under way. 
Is it possible that the control, being a real spirit 
entity, desired to give her mother confidence and 
to show her that there was no reason for her 
nervousness? At any rate this was the effect 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 193 

produced, for the medium immediately became 
quite cheerful. 

The phonograph was resting on a table out- 
side the circle of sitters, directly opposite the 
medium. The horn of the instrument was more 
than seven feet distant from her. 

The control seemed to be in charge, so I ex- 
plained that I wished her to bring the mouth of 
the trumpet through which the direct voice 
would speak, right up to the horn of the phono- 
graph, as otherwise the voice might not be clear- 
ly reproduced. She rather discourteously re- 
plied that "she would do what she liked." 

However, in a short time, she said she was 
ready. I told her to wait until she heard the 
buzzing of the machine and then to speak into 
it. Before I pulled the lever which started the 
machine (it was an Edison "Standard" kindly 
loaned me by Mr. Edens Osborne of Belfast), I 
asked the sitters on either side of the medium 
if they had tight hold of her hands and they re- 
plied in the affirmative. The cylinder had only 
made a few revolutions when the control com- 
menced to sing a song into the horn. This song 
was three verses in length and at the end of each 
verse she interjected remarks such as "How's 
that," etc. I told her to sing a little louder, 
and during the third verse she sang quite loudly. 

I plainly felt the movement of the air just at 
the mouth of the phonograph horn as the song 



194 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

was being sung, which would seem to indicate 
that the end of the trumpet was moving to and 
fro at that spot. Moreover, the control's voice 
emanated from a position just at the mouth of 
the horn. I did not attempt to touch the trum- 
pet as I knew from experience that if I did so 
it would be likely to drop. If an end of the 
trumpet was thus right at the mouth of the pho- 
nograph horn, as it appeared to be, the nearest 
distance of the other end of the trumpet from 
the medium must have been well over four feet. 
At the conclusion of the song and after I had 
stopped the instrument I asked the sitters on 
either side of the medium if they still had hold 
of her hands and they replied in the affirmative. 
These sitters afterwards told me that during the 
taking of the record the medium's hands were 
vibrating rapidly as though they were under 
great nervous stress. 

Then occurred the incident of the silk coat 
(discussed later). 

The control asked that the light be turned on, 
which was done. I tried the record and found 
the voice satisfactorily recorded. 

Another blank record was put on the machine, 
the medium's hands were held and the light was 
put out. The control, at my request, this time 
spoke into the horn of the phonograph, instead 
of singing, and again the voice was recorded. 

There is internal evidence in the records them- 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 195 

selves, that the voice must have been speaking 
right into the horn of the phonograph and not 
from some distance away. Amongst people who 
are continually making records it is well known 
that if the voice to be recorded speaks too close 
into the horn a kind of tinny, metallic sound is 
produced which spoils the quality of the repro- 
duced voice. Phonograph manufacturers call 
this effect "blasting." In several places in the 
two records of the control's voice this metallic 
"blasting" is heard, indicating that the voice 
must have been very close to, if not indeed with- 
in, the horn of the phonograph. 

At the conclusion of the experiment the elec- 
trical foot apparatus was tested and was found 
to be working perfectly. 

THE COAT INCIDENT 

At the commencement of the seance the me- 
dium wore a knitted silk coat having sleeves 
reaching down to the wrist. There was a silk 
belt fastened round it at the waist. 

Just after the first phonographic record had 
been taken I heard a peculiar f ussling noise near 
me (on the side of the circle remote from the 
medium). When the light was turned on, the 
coat and belt were found neatly hung over the 
arm of one of the men (Mr. W) sitting opposite 
the medium and perhaps five feet distant from 



196 ^EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

her. They had previously landed on Mr& T's 
hands and had then seemed to take a leap on to 
the gentleman's arm (so at least says Mrs. T). 
One sleeve of the coat was found turned out- 
side in. The belt was found undone and sep- 
arate from the coat. At the time the coat was 
thrown or lifted on to Mr. W's arm, both Mrs. 
Mills and Mr. Stoupe were holding one of the 
medium's hands and her feet were on the elec- 
trical apparatus. But there was a minute or 
two at the beginning of the seance, while the 
hands of everybody were supposed to be resting 
on knees, during which the medium's hands were 
free. Hence there is nothing to test conditions 
about this incident and I only relate it as a mat- 
ter of interest. 

STANCE IV 

Date— Sunday, 28th April, 1918 
Time 7.30-9.00 p. m. 

Weights of sitters just before and just after 
the seance : 

Weights Just before^Weights Just after 

seance — pounds stance — pounds 

Mrs. Z (medium) 

Mrs. A 141*1 141*6 

Mr. M 180 179% 

Mr. W 159 159 

Mr. U 153^ 153H 

Mrs. Q 148% . 148% 

Mrs.P 144% 144% 

The above weights include the weight of chair 
and drawing-board (18% lb.)V 



DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENA 197 

There was very little phenomena at this stance 
and the reader should note that the decreases in 
weight of the sitters are not so marked as in 
previous sittings. 

Experiment with a photographic plate. 

The medium held a dark slide containing a 
half plate in her hands for about half-an-hour. 
There were noises as though the slide was being 
opened and closed, and the medium may have 
been doing this. The control's voice was heard 
saying that she was trying to put something on 
the plate. 

Result: Negative. Nothing whatever on the 
plate. 

Experiment with curtain rings* 

Two wooden curtain rings were placed on the 
floor with a request to the operators to inter- 
lock them. (This would have amounted to the 
penetration of solid matter by solid matter.) 
Result: Negative. 

Experiment with clay in sealed box. 

A wooden box about 12 inches square and 4 
inches high was used. Into this some modeller's 
clay was placed and nicely smoothed. The lid 
was then placed on it and the whole roped and 
sealed. The operators were asked to make an 
impression on the clay inside the box without 
breaking the seals. 
Result: Negative. 



198 EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHICAL SCIENCE 

The Municipal Technical Institute, 
Belfast, 6th May, 1918. 
I hereby declare that during the whole time 
the control was singing and speaking into the 
phonograph, I had firm hold of Mrs. Z's left 
hand. Her hand was resting on her knee and 
my little finger was tightly twisted round her 
little finger. Dr. Crawford asked me just before 
each phonograph record was taken and just 
after it was taken if I was sure I had tight hold. 
I replied that I was sure. 

(Signed) Seamus Stoupe. 

Bray, Co. Wicklow, 7th May, 1918. 
I hereby declare that during the whole time 
the control was singing and speaking into 
the phonograph, I had firm hold of Mrs. Z's 
right hand. Her hand was resting on her knee 
and my little finger was tightly twisted round 
her little finger. Dr. Crawford asked me just 
before each phonograph record was taken and 
just after it was taken if I was sure I had tight 
hold. I replied that I was sure. 

(Signed) Marian Mills. 



LIST OF EXPERIMENTS 



Experi- 
ment No. 



Subject 



Page 



9. 
10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 



Capsizing moment on medium 

Capsizing moment on medium 

Effect of base of cantilever column 
resting on pressure recorder 

Impression on clay of base of cantilever 
column 

Effect on medium's weight when ex- 
perimenter presses downwards on 
levitated table 

Effect on medium's weight when the 
base of the cantilever rests on the 
scalepan of a spring balance under 
levitated table 

Effect on medium's weight when the 
base of the cantilever rests on the 
scalepan of a spring balance under 
the levitated table 

Effect on medium's weight when the 
base of the cantilever rests on the 
scalepan of a spring balance under 
the levitated table 

The table levitated upside down 

Effect on weight of medium when table's 
weight is psychically increased 

Effect on weight of medium when table's 
weight is psychically increased 

Effect on weight of medium when table's 
weight is psychically increased 

Effect of the phenomena on the me- 
dium when she is seated on bicycles 

Effect on weight of medium when the 
experimenter presses on the table in 
the direction of medium 

Effect on weight of medium when the 
experimenter pulls outwards on the 
table away from medium 

199 



28 
33 

3G 

39 

40 

41 

44 

45 
51 

52 

53 

54 

56 

61 

62 



200 



LIST OF EXPERIMENTS 



Experi- 
ment No. 


Subject 


Page 


16. 
17. 


How the psychic rod acts when a man, 
though exerting all his strength, is 
unable to push the table, resting on 
the floor, inwards towards medium 

Downward psychic pressure on scale- 
pan of balance 


63 
69 


18. 


Movement of medium and chair along 
the floor 


71 


19. 


Weight of matter used m the construc- 
tion of psychic cantilever 


78 


20. 
21. 

22. 

i 

23. 

24.' 

-25. 


Psychic matter placed on drawing- 
board 

Psychic matter used for largest rap- 
ping rod 

Psychic matter built up into a rapping 
rod 

Maximum weight of matter taken 
from medium's body 

Reaction pressure on medium's chair, 
drawing-board, standard of weighing 
machine, etc 

To see if the operators could increase 
the weight of medium by direct 
action upon her body 


79 
SO 
81 
SI 

S3 

84 


26. 


To see if the free end of the cantilever 
structure is a conductor of low- 
tension electricity 


86 


27. 


To see if the free end of the cantilever 
structure is a conductor of low- 
tension electricity 


87 


28. 


To see if the free end of the cantilever 
structure is a # conductor of low- 
tension electricity 


88 


29. . 
30. 

31. 

32. 


The effect of medium touching the 
levitated table with her hand 

The effect of medium touching the 
levitated table with her hand and 
with various substances 

The effect of medium touching the 
levitated table with her hand and 
with various substances 

Medium sitting with her back to the 
circle 


90 

91 

92 
94 


33. 
34. 


Medium sitting sideways to the circle 

Effect on phenomena of medium and 

sitters standing 


95 
95 






LIST OF EXPERIMENTS 



201 



Experi- 
ment No. 


Subject 


Page 


35. 
36. 

37. 

38. 
39. 
40. 

41. 


Effect of grasping ankle of medium . . . 
Temperature of table during a long 

levitation 

Temperature of cantilever and psychic 

matter 

Wire netting in front of medium 

Potato sack in front of medium 

To see if the operators could write a 

message with a pencil 

Weight of psychic body of medium . . . 

"Contact" phenomena 

Experiments on the "direct voice". . . 


96 

96 

97 
99 
99 

103 
103 
160 

178 



